Convict Surgeonfish
| Convict Surgeonfish | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acanthurus triostegus and Labroides phthirophagus |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Acanthurus triostegus | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The convict surgeonfish ( Acanthurus triostegus ), also grid surgeonfish called, is a kind from the family of surgeonfish .
distribution and habitat
The convict doctor fish is found throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific. It can be found on the coasts of East Africa as well as those of Mexico and Panama . It lives there above the hard floors on outer reefs and in lagoons and can be observed in water depths of 0 to 90 meters.
Appearance
The convict surgeon fish, like all surgeon fish species, has a high-backed, laterally flattened body and reaches a body length of up to 26 cm. The fin edges of the anal and dorsal fin are rounded, the caudal fin is almost straight.
The body is light gray to gray-white in color and has six vertical black-gray stripes. A stripe runs over the eye, which is high on the body; the last strip runs over the base of the tail. At the beginning of the tail root, the convict surgeon fish carries the thorn typical of scalpel surgeon fish .
behavior
Convict surgeonfish very often form large schools of up to 1,000 individuals. Occasionally it socializes with other fish species such as rabbit and parrot fish . The formation of such swarms is a behavior adjustment due to the poorly nutritious main food of microalgae. In shoals, convict surgeon fish are able to penetrate the feeding grounds of other defensive fish species. When large numbers of corals died off the Maldives in 1998, the schools of convict doctor fish broke up there, as sufficient food reserves were available due to the abundance of algae.
literature
- André Luty: Doctor fish - way of life - care - species. Dähne Verlag, Ettlingen 1999, ISBN 3-921684-61-7 .
- Andreas Vilcinskas: Marine animals of the tropics. Franckh-Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-440-07943-0 .
Web links
- Convict surgeonfish on Fishbase.org (English)
- Acanthurus triostegus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: McIlwain, J., Choat, JH, Abesamis, R., Clements, KD, Myers, R., Nanola, C., Rocha, LA, Russell, B. & Stockwell, B., 2010 . February 2014.