''Kyphosus azureus'', the zebra-perch sea chub, zebra perch or zebra sea chub, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of 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

sea chub The sea chubs, also known as rudderfish and pilot fish and in Hawaiian as ''enenue'' or ''nenue'', are a family, Kyphosidae, (from Greek, ''kyphos'' = hump) of fishes in the order Perciformes native to the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans u ...

from 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 ...

Kyphosidae which is native to the eastern Pacific Ocean coasts of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

Description

''Kyhosus azureus'' has a moderately deep, compressed, oval body with a small head which has a pointed snout and a small, thickly lipped mouth. There is a continuous

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 ...

which contains 11 spines, which can be folded down into a scaly furrow, and 9 soft rays. The spiny part of the dorsal fin is longer than thesoft-rayed part. The

anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

has 3 spine and 10 The body is covered in thick, rough scales soft rays which are longer than those in the dorsal fin. The

caudal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only ...

is forked and the

pelvic The pelvis (: pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of an anatomical trunk, between the abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also called bony pelvis or pelvic skeleton). ...

and

pectoral fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish aquatic locomotion, swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the vertebral column ...

s are small. The body is covered in small, rough scales except for the snout and between the eyes. The body has a pale khaki colour broken by 10 or so long brown vertical bars. It has a blue spot on the upper margin of the gill cover and a black spot underneath the base of the pectoral fin. The underparts are whitish. This species attains a maximum

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish measured f ...

of .

Distribution

''Kyphosus azureus'' is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean where it is found from

Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by about 75 miles (120 km), accessible via California S ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

and into the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California (), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Vermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California peninsula from ...

where it is commonest in the northern and central parts of the gulf.

Habitat and biology

''Kyphosus azureus'' is a shallow water species found in inshore areas down to depths of . Here it occurs on coastal rocky reefs and reef flats where there is growth of algae. The adults live in the subtidal zone and the juveniles in rock pools. It is a herbivorous species eating red, brown, and green algae. Juveniles behave as

cleaner fish Cleaner fish are fish that show a specialist feeding strategy by providing a service to other species, referred to as clients, by removing dead skin, ectoparasites, and infected tissue from the surface or gill chambers. This example of cleaning ...

for the opaleye (''

Girella nigricans ''Girella nigricans'', commonly known as the opaleye or rudderfish, is a species of sea chub found in the Eastern Pacific, from California to southern Baja California. A rarely documented isolated population also exists in the Gulf of California, ...

'') and shiner perch {''Cymatogaster aggregata'') They are often form mixed schools with

halfmoon The halfmoon (''Medialuna californiensis''), also known as the blue perch, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a sea chub from the subfamily Scorpidinae, part of the Family (biology), family Kyphosidae. It is native to the coasts of the east ...

(''Medianluna californiensis'') Opaleye, and Pacific sergeant major (''Abudefduf troschelii''). At night this diurnal species hides in crevices. they are pelagic spawners.

Taxonomy

''Kyphosus azureus'' was first formally described in 1889 by Oliver Peebles Jenkins and Barton Warren Evermann as ''Hermosilla azurea'' and they gave the type locality as

Guaymas Guaymas () is a city in Guaymas Municipality, in the southwest part of the List of states of Mexico, state of Sonora, in northwestern Mexico. The city is south of the state capital of Hermosillo, and from the Mexico – United States border, U.S. ...

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

in western Mexico. In 2013 a review of the family Kyphosidae found that the

monospecific In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

genus ''Hermosilla'' was a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

of ''

Kyphosus ''Kyphosus'' is a genus of sea chubs native to the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Species There are currently 16 recognized species in this genus: * ''Kyphosus analogus'' (Theodore Nicholas Gill ...

''.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from1=Q21274605, from2=Q1944845 azureus Fish described in 1889 Taxa named by Barton Warren Evermann Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN