The gold-band fusilier (''Pterocaesio chrysozona'') also known as the yellow-band fusilier or black-tipped fusilier, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a fusilier belonging to the family Caesionidae. It is widespread around reefs in the Indo-West Pacific region.

Taxonomy

The goldband fusilier was first formally described as ''Caesio chryszona'' in 1830 by the French

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier (; ), was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuv ...

with the type locality given as "''Archipel des Indes''", i.e. Indonesia. In his 1987 review of the Caesionidae, Kent E. Carpenter placed this species within the subgenus ''Pisinnicaesio'', of which it is the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

. The specific name ''chrysozona'' means "gold band", a reference to the yellow stripe on its flanks.

Description

The goldband fusilier has a fusiform and elongated body which is moderately laterally compressed. There are small conical teeth in the jaws and on the vomer and palatines. The dorsal fin contains 10–11 spines and 14–16 soft rays while the

anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

has 3 spines and 11–13 soft rays. There are scales on both the dorsal and anal fins. There are 17–20 rays in the

pectoral fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish aquatic locomotion, swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the vertebral column ...

s. This species attains a maximum total length of . The overall colour is pale blue to brownish fading to pinkish or white below. There is a wide yellow band along the flanks immediately below the lateral line.

Distribution and habitat

The goldband fusilier is found in the tropical Indian and Western Pacific Oceans. Its range extends along the eastern coast of Africa from Mozambique north to the Red Sea and eastwards across the Indian Ocean, although it is absent from the northern Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. In the Pacific Ocean is reaches east as far as the Solomon Islands, north to the Yaeyama Islands and south to Australia. In Australia they are found around the coast from the Dampier Archipelago in

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. They are at depths between among

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in group ...

s, seagrass, along outer reef slopes and around pinnacles in deep lagoons.

Biology

Goldband fusiliers are a non- migratory fish, found during the day moving in schools. At night they shelter within the reef. The schools forage for zooplankton in midwater. It is an

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...

species which lays large numbers of small, pelagic eggs. Pterocaesio chrysozona

School of Pterocaesio chrysozona in Papua New Guinea 2

Fisheries

Goldband fusiliers play a minor role in commercial fisheries. In the Philippines, they are sometimes caught and marketed fresh using traps and drive-in nets. In the Laccadives, the

Maldives The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in South Asia located in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, abou ...

and the West Pacific, they are used as baitfish for the pole and line tuna fisheries.

Notes

References

* Carpenter K.E. (1988)

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Species Catalogue
Vol 8: Fusilier fishes of the world''
Unipub. . {{Taxonbar, from=Q3023441 Goldband fusilier Fish described in 1830 Taxa named by Georges Cuvier