The goldtail angelfish (''Pomacanthus chrysurus''), also known as the earspot angelfish, is a species of marine
ray-finned fish, a
marine angelfish belonging to the
family Pomacanthidae. It is found in the western Indian Ocean.
Description
The goldtail angelfish shows more similarities between the adults and the juveniles than most other marine angelfishes in the genus ''
Pomacanthus
''Pomacanthus'' is a genus of marine angelfish that is usually found around reefs and coral. Some of the notable places one can see these vari-coloured fish includes the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Sipidan off the southern coast of Sabah, Malaysi ...
''. The juveniles have blackish-brown bodies marked with many white vertical bars. The face is paler, more orangey than the body and is marked with uneven blue lines. They have a yellow
caudal fin which develops a white bar on the
caudal peduncle when the fish reaches around in length. Both juveniles and adults have a black spot on the upper anterior portion of the body. The adults are similar to the juveniles, the differences being that they have a dark face and no white bar on the caudal peduncle.
The
dorsal fin has 13–14 spines and 17–19 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 18–19 soft rays. This species attains a maximum
total length of .
[
]
Distribution
The goldtail angelfish is found in the western Indian Ocean from the 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 ...
south along the coast of Eastern Africa as far as KwaZulu Natal. Its range includes Madagascar, the Comoro Islands and the Seychelles.
Habitat and biology
The goldtail angelfish is found at depths of between on shallow reefs which have rich growths of coral, or rocky reefs.sponges
Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through ...
, tunicates, crustaceans, and zooplankton while the juveniles, who are found in much shallower water consume large quantities of algae.[ The biology of this species is otherwise little known.]
Systematics
The goldtail angelfish was first formally described as ''Holocanthus flavissimus'' in 1831 by the French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
anatomist Georges Cuvier (1769–1832) with the type locality given as Dorey Harbor, New Guinea, which could be an error for Madagascar.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 ...
''Acanthochaetodon''. The specific name ''chrysurus'' is this compound of ''chrysis'' meaning “gold” and ''urus'' meaning “tail”, a reference to the yellow caudal fin.
Utilisation
The goldtail angelfish is infrequently collected for the aquarium trade but does not often make it on to the market. Most commercially available specimens originate from Kenya.
References
External links
*http://www.fishbase.org/summary/11209#
*http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+18+406&pcatid=406
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1499426
Goldtail angelfish
Fish described in 1831
Taxa named by Georges Cuvier