Spanish pig wrasse
| Spanish pig wrasse | ||||||||||||
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Spanish pig wrasse ( Bodianus rufus ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Bodianus rufus | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The Spanish pig wrasse ( Bodianus rufus ), often shortened to the Spanish hogfish or Atlantic hogfish , lives in the tropical , western Atlantic , from Bermuda and the south coast of Florida to southern Brazil , the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico .
features
The Spanish pig wrasse can be 60 centimeters long. In terms of color, its body is divided into two parts, the front and top halves are blue, dark gray-blue, purple or red. It appears black-blue in deep water and can vary depending on its age and origin. The back and lower halves of the body are yellow. The front part of the dorsal , anal and pelvic fins is also bluish, the rear part yellow. The mouth area is yellow. In juvenile fish, the border between the colors is very sharply defined.
The long dorsal fin of the Spanish pig wrasse is supported by 12 hard rays and 9 to 11 soft rays, the anal fin has 3 hard and 11 soft rays.
Way of life
The Spanish pig wrasse migrates over large areas and lives mainly on rocky and coral reefs at depths of one to 60 meters. It mainly eats hard-shelled invertebrates such as molluscs , crustaceans , sea urchins , snake and hair stars . He often accompanies other predatory fish such as mackerel and moray eels through the reef. Young ones with a size of 5 to 15 centimeters act as cleaner fish and remove parasites and dead skin residues from larger fish, such as groupers . Spanish pig wrasse are protogynous hermaphrodites (i.e. first females, then males). They may hybridize with Bodianus pulchellus .
literature
- Hans A. Baensch , Helmut Debelius, Horst Moosleitner: The common care of invertebrates and tropical marine fish in the aquarium. Mergus, Melle 1997, ISBN 3-88244-110-0 ( Sea Water Atlas. Volume 1).
- Maren and Werner Baumeister: Marine fauna of the Caribbean and Florida. Ulmer, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8001-4164-7 .
- Ewald Lieske, Robert F. Myers: Coral fish of the world. Year, Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-86132-112-2 .
Web links
- Spanish hogfish on Fishbase.org (English)
- Bodianus rufus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: Xie, Y. & Russell, B., 2009. Retrieved September 24, 2013.