''Caesio cuning'', the redbelly yellowtail fusilier, yellowtail fusilier, red-bellied fusilier or robust fusilier, is a species of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or hor ...

, a fusilier belonging to the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Caesionidae. It is native to the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans.

Taxonomy

''Caesio cuning'' was first formally described in 1791 as ''Sparus cuning'' by the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

Marcus Elieser Bloch Marcus Elieser Bloch (1723–1799) was a German physician and naturalist who is best known for his contribution to ichthyology through his multi-volume catalog of plates illustrating the fishes of the world. Brought up in a Hebrew-speaking Jewish ...

with the type locality given as Indonesia. This species has been placed in the

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

''Odontonectes''. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''cuning'' is derived from the local Indonesian name ''ikan Tembra Cuning'', ''ikan'' means “fish”.

Description

''Caesio cuning'' has a deep and laterally compressed body. The jaws, vomer, and palatines have small conical teeth. The dorsal and

anal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

s have scales; the dorsal fin has 10 spines and 14 to 16, typically 15, soft rays while the anal fin contains 3 spines and 10 to 12, usually 11, soft rays. The

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

s have 17 to 20 fin rays, normally 18 or 19. This species attains a maximum total length of . The rear of the back, the

caudal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

and the dorsal surface of the caudal peduncle are yellow. The rest of the upper body is greyish blue. The lower flanks and abdomen are white or pinkish. The pectoral,

pelvic The pelvis (plural pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of the trunk, between the abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also called bony pelvis, or pelvic skeleton). The ...

, and anal fins are white to pink. The pectoral fin has black on its axil and on the upper part of its base. The dorsal fin is greyish-blue at the front and yellow at the rear.

Distribution and habitat

''Caesio cuning'' has an Indo-West Pacific range. It ranges from Sri Lanka and southern India east to Fiji, north to southern Japan and south to northern Australia. It occurs at depths between . It often occurs in silty areas where visibility is poor, otherwise it is found in coastal waters, typically above rocky and coral reefs.

Biology

''Caesio cuning'' gathers in midwater schools where they feed on

zooplankton Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...

such as

salps A salp (plural salps, also known colloquially as “sea grape”) or salpa (plural salpae or salpas) is a barrel-shaped, planktic tunicate. It moves by contracting, thereby pumping water through its gelatinous body, one of the most efficient ...

, doliolids, pteropods,

heteropod The Pterotracheoidea is, according to the Taxonomy of the Gastropoda (Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005), a taxonomic superfamily of sea snails or sea slugs, marine gastropod molluscs in the clade Littorinimorpha. They are commonly called heteropods or se ...

s, chaetognaths, among other zooplankton. It is an oviparous species which lays large numbers of small, pelagic eggs.

Fisheries

''Caesio cuning'' is a moderately important target for coastal fisheries. It is common in fish markets in Indonesia and the Philippines. They are caught using drive-in nets, gill nets, traps, trawls and handlines. The fish caught are normally sold as fresh fish but some of the catch is preserved as

salted fish Salted fish, such as kippered herring or dried and salted cod, is fish cured with dry salt and thus preserved for later eating. Drying or salting, either with dry salt or with brine, was the only widely available method of preserving fish unt ...

. The juveniles are caught to be used as bait by tuna fisheries. There have been population declines in some areas because of

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in th ...

but in other areas populations are stable.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2612847 Fish of Thailand Fish of the Pacific Ocean Fish of the Indian Ocean cuning Fish described in 1791