''Heniochus monoceros'', the masked bannerfish, is a marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

, a

butterflyfish The butterflyfish are a group of conspicuous tropical ocean, marine fish of the family Chaetodontidae; the bannerfish and coralfish are also included in this group. The approximately 129 species in 12 genera are found mostly on the reefs of the ...

belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Chaetodontidae. It is found in the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

area.

Description

The masked bannerfish is a small-sized

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

that can reach a maximum length of 23 cm. Its body is compressed laterally, the first rays of its

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

stretch in a white filament outlined with yellow. The background body color is white with two black vertical bands. The first band masks its face starting at its mouth, and runs to the base of the first rays of the dorsal fin including at the same time its snout and eyes. The lips are white and a fin whitish band runs between the eyes and another one occurs on top of the eyes. the masked bannerfish has a small growth on the axis of the forehead from which radiates a bright whitish to yellowish area. The second band is right in the middle of the fish side. A yellow area extends from the posterior edge of the second black band to the middle of the anal fin including on the way the dorsal and caudal fins. Within this yellow area close to the caudal peduncle, a brown-yellow blotch, variable in size from one fish to another, emerges. Heniochus monoceros by Jaroslaw Barski

Distribution & habitat

The masked bannerfish is widespread throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the

area from the eastern coast of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Polynesia Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...

and from south

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

to New-Caledonia). The masked bannerfish typically lives in external reef slopes and in lagoon rich in corals, at a depth of .

Biology

Depending on the geographic area, the masked bannerfish lives in pairs or in groups (i.e. especially along island reefs in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

) but always close by its shelter reef and feeds on benthic invertebrates.Rudie Kuiter, “Chaetodontidae & Microcanthidae”, Aquatic Photographics, 2004,

Conservation status

In some geographic area the masked bannerfish is harvested occasionally for the aquarium trade. However, there do not appear to be any current threats to this species and it is listed as Least Concern (LC) by the IUCN.

References

Biolib

Aquatab

Australian Museum

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1532912

monoceros Monoceros ( Greek: , "unicorn") is a faint constellation on the celestial equator. Its definition is attributed to the 17th-century cartographer Petrus Plancius. It is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the s ...

Fish described in 1831 Taxa named by Georges Cuvier