''Cantherhines macrocerus'', commonly known as the whitespotted filefish or American whitespotted filefish, is a marine fish found along the coast of Florida extending southward into the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

. This species is distinct and separate from ''

Cantherhines dumerilii ''Cantherhines dumerilii'' is a species of fish in the family Monacanthidae, the filefishes. Its common names include whitespotted filefish, barred filefish, orange-fin file, and yelloweye leatherjacket.Froese, R. and D. Pauly, EdsCommon names of ...

'', the similarly named whitespotted filefish which is found in the Indian and

Pacific oceans The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Description

The American whitespotted filefish typically has a brown or olive colored body, although it may also be grey. These fish can rapidly change appearance to a high contrast color pattern with a much darker background and many light colored spots With a maximum length of around 18 inches, they are smaller than the

scrawled filefish ''Aluterus scriptus'', commonly known as scrawled filefish, broomtail filefish or scribbled leatherjacket, is a marine fish belonging to the family Monacanthidae. Distribution This species has a circumtropical repartition, it can be found in ...

which is also found in their range. The American whitespotted filefish is often seen in pairs.

Diet

These fish are omnivorous; although they eat animals like sponges,

stinging coral Sting may refer to: * Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger * Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself Fictional characters and entities * Sting (Middle-ear ...

and gorgonians, and algae.

As aquarium fish

The American whitespotted filefish can be kept in large aquariums. These fish are non-aggressive, need plenty of places to hide, and will eat brine shrimp, krill and

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

References

External links

* - ReefGuide's whitespotted filefish photos showing animals with and without spots * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q304407 Monacanthidae Fish described in 1853