''Apolemichthys xanthotis'', the yellow-ear angelfish or Red Sea angelfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a marine angelfish belonging to the family Pomacanthidae.

Description

''Apolemichthys xanthotis'' has a largely white coloured body with a black head, a yellow tail. 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 are black with white margins. The black on the head is more extensive than in the closely related ''Apolemichthys xanthotis'' extending across the Gill cover and over the first few scale rows on the body. This contrasts with the yellow spot on the upper preoperculum. The juveniles have a wide black band running over the eye and an oblique are of black on the back, this patch fades as the fish matures. This species attains a maximum total length of .

Distribution

''Apolemichthys xanthotis'' is found in the northwestern Indian Ocean in the Red Sea,

Gulf of Aden The Gulf of Aden ( ar, خليج عدن, so, Gacanka Cadmeed 𐒅𐒖𐒐𐒕𐒌 𐒋𐒖𐒆𐒗𐒒) is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Channe ...

, the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. It is also found off Socotra and a transient population was discovered off Kenya following the El Nino of 1998.

Habitat and biology

''Apolemichthys xanthotis'' lives at depths between in areas that are rich in coral, as well as on rocky reefs. It is typically encountered in pairs or small groups and probably feeds on algae and benthic invertebrates, especially sponges.

Systematics

''Apolemichthys xanthotis'' was first formally described in 1950 as ''Holacanthus xanthotis'' by the British

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...

Alec Fraser-Bruner (1906–1986) with the

type locality Type locality may refer to: * Type locality (biology) * Type locality (geology) See also * Local (disambiguation) * Locality (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

given as Al-Mukalla on the Red Sea coast of Yemen. Its

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 ...

''xanthotis'' means “yellow ear” and refers to the yellow spot on the upper preoperculum. Within the genus '' Apolemichthys'' this species seems to be more closely related to '' A. griffisi'' of the Western Pacific Ocean and the

allopatric Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

'' A. xanthurus'' of the Indian Ocean.

Utilisation

Apolemichthys xanthotis is uncommon in the aquarium trade. This is despite being considered to be a beautiful, hardy and easily maintained species.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2436166

xanthotis ''Xanthotis'' is a genus of birds in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. The genus contains three species: * Spotted honeyeater (''Xanthotis polygrammus'') * Macleay's honeyeater (''Xanthotis macleayanus'') * Tawny-breasted honeyeater (''Xanth ...

Taxa named by Alec Fraser-Brunner Fish described in 1950