The Cocos-Keeling angelfish (''Centropyge colini''), or Colin's angelfish is a small species of
ray-finned fish, a
marine angelfish belonging to the
family Pomacanthidae. It is found in the
Indo-West Pacific region.
Description
The Cocos-Keeling angelfish is mainly lemon-yellow in colour with a wide blue stripe from the nape along the back to the middle of the dorsal fin. There is a thin purplish ring around the eye.
The
dorsal fin contains 14 spines and 16-17 soft rays while the
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 ...
has 3 spines and 17 soft rays. This species attains a maximum total length of .
Distribution
The Cocos-Keeling angelfish has been recorded from a scattering of sites in the Indo-West Pacific. These include the
Spratly Islands,
Palau, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia,
Marshall Islands,
Cocos Keeling Islands, Fiji and
Guam, with an unconfirmed report from the
Ogasawara Islands off Japan.
Habitat and biology
The Cocos-Keeling angelfish is found at depths between .
It is a shy and secretive species which lives in crevices and caves in deep reef drop offs. It is found in groups which consist of a male and a harem of 2-6 females.
[ The male is replaced by the most dominant female if he disappears. Very little is known about the diet of this species.][
]
Systematics
The Cocos-Keeling angelfish was first formally described in 1974 by William F. Smith-Vaniz and Ernest J. Randall (1924-2020) with the type locality given as Turks Reef in the Cocos-Keeling Islands.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 ...
''Centropyge''.
Etymology
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 ...
honours the biologist Patrick L. Colin who helped collect the type
Type may refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc.
* Data type, collection of values used for computations.
* File type
* TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file.
* Ty ...
.
Utlisation
The Cocos-Keeling angelfish rarely appears in the aquarium
An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...
trade.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:angelfish, Cocos-Keeling
Cocos-Keeling angelfish
Fauna of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Taxa named by William Farr Smith-Vaniz
Taxa named by John Ernest Randall
Cocos-Keeling angelfish