The yellowfin goatfish (''Mulloidichthys vanicolensis'') 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), ...

goatfish The goatfishes are ray-finned fish of the family Mullidae, the only family in the suborder Mulloidei of the order Syngnathiformes. The family is also sometimes referred to as the red mullets, which also refers more narrowly to the genus '' Mul ...

native to 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), ...

and the

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

Description

''M. vanicolensis'' can reach a maximum length of . The back is red-orange, while the flanks and the belly are whitish and the fins are yellow. The sides show a yellow longitudinal band. This species feeds on crustaceans or worms at night. By day, it forms large aggregations.

Distribution and habitat

These fish are widespread 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 ...

, from the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

and the

Tuamotus The Tuamotu Archipelago or the Tuamotu Islands (, officially ) are a French Polynesian chain of just under 80 islands and atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean. They constitute the largest chain of atolls in the world, extending (from northwest to ...

, north to

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 ...

and to

Lord Howe Island Lord Howe Island (; formerly Lord Howe's Island) is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, part of the Australian state of New South Wales. It lies directly east of mainland Port ...

to the south. The yellowfin goatfish is a reef-associated species. It usually can be found in lagoons and seaward reefs at depths of .

Parasites

Two genera of

monogenea Monogeneans, members of the class Monogenea, are a group of ectoparasitic flatworms commonly found on the skin, gills, or fins of fish. They have a direct lifecycle and do not require an intermediate host. Adults are hermaphrodites, meaning they ...

n gill parasites, namely '' Volsellituba'' and ''

Pennulituba ''Pennulituba'' is a genus of monogeneans belonging to the family Ancyrocephalidae (sometimes considered as belonging to the Dactylogyridae). Etymology The generic name is derived from the Latin ("winglet") and ("tube"), referring to the male ...

'', with a total of five different species, including ''V. orchidea'', ''V. nabla'', ''V. elephantina'', ''P. piratifalx'', and ''P. cymansis'', have been reported from the yellowfin goatfish off

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

, and were apparently found only on this species of fish. The apocreadiid

digenea Digenea (Gr. ''Dis'' – double, ''Genos'' – race) is a class of trematodes in the Platyhelminthes phylum, consisting of parasitic flatworms (known as ''flukes'') with a syncytial tegument and, usually, two suckers, one ventral and one or ...

n ''Homalometron moraveci'' is found in the intestine.

References

External links

Catalogue of Life
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2320381 Mullidae Fish of the Indian Ocean Fish of the Pacific Ocean Fish described in 1831 Taxa named by Achille Valenciennes