The rock beauty (''Holacanthus tricolor''), also known as corn sugar, coshubba, rock beasty, catalineta, and yellow nanny, is a species 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 marine angelfish 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 ...

Pomacanthidae Marine angelfish are perciform fish of the family Pomacanthidae. They are found on shallow reefs in the tropical Atlantic, Indian, and mostly western Pacific Oceans. The family contains seven genera and about 86 species. They should not be co ...

. It is found in the western Atlantic Ocean.

Description

The rock beauty has a deep oval and strongly compressed body, with a short snout, ending in a small mouth equipped with bristle-like teeth. There is a large spine in the angle of the

preopercle The operculum is a series of bones found in bony fish and chimaeras that serves as a facial support structure and a protective covering for the gills; it is also used for respiration and feeding. Anatomy The opercular series contains four bon ...

which has a serrated vertical edge. The bone lying between the preopercle and

gill cover The operculum is a series of bones found in bony fish and Chimaera, chimaeras that serves as a facial support structure and a protective covering for the gills; it is also used for respiration and feeding. Anatomy The opercular series contain ...

has 1–4 large spines. The juveniles are yellowish on their body and fins, with a blue margined black spot on the upper posterior part of the body. As they mature into adults the spot grows, eventually covering most of the body and the lower part of the

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 ...

and the upper part of then

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 ...

. The head and anterior quarter of the body are yellow, as are the

pectoral Pectoral may refer to: * The chest region and anything relating to it. * Pectoral cross, a cross worn on the chest * a decorative, usually jeweled version of a gorget * Pectoral (Ancient Egypt), a type of jewelry worn in ancient Egypt * Pectora ...

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

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 ...

s. The mouth is purple. the front edge of the anal fin and margin of operculum are orange. In the eye there is vivid blue on the upper and lower portions of the iris. In the dorsal fin there are 14 spines and 17–19 soft rays while the anal fin contains 3 spines and 18–20 soft rays. This species attains a maximum total length of .

Etymology

The

genus name Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial spec ...

''Holacanthus'' comes from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

ὅλος (''hólos''), meaning "full", and ἄκανθα (''ákantha''), meaning "spine". 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 ...

''tricolor'' means "three-colored" in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

Distribution

The rock beauty is found in the Western Atlantic Ocean where it ranges from

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

and the waters off

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

and

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

in southwards through the Caribbean Sea and along the coasts of South America as far as Rio de Janeiro. It is uncommon and localised in the Gulf of Mexico where it only occurs at the Flower Gardens Banks off

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

and off Veracruz and on the Campeche Bank in Mexico.

Habitat and biology

The rock beauty is found at depths between . They occur around jetties, rocky reefs and coral reefs, while the juveniles are often seen in areas of fire coral. They feed largely on

sponge Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and a ...

s but will also eat corals, zoantharians, bryozoans, gorgonians,

tunicates Tunicates are marine invertebrates belonging to the subphylum Tunicata ( ). This grouping is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords (including vertebrates). The subphylum was at one time ...

and

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...

. The adults are normally encountered as pairs and appear to form long term monogamous pairs. These pairs frequently consist of a larger individual and a smaller one, possibly indicating

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

, although there is no

sexual dichromatism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecious species, which consis ...

. During mating the pair ascends in the water column, with their abdomens close together while they release eggs and

milt Milt is the seminal fluid of fish, mollusks, and certain other water-dwelling animals. They reproduce by spraying this fluid which contains the sperm, onto roe (fish eggs). It can also refer to the sperm sacs or testes that contain the semen. ...

into the water. A female can lay between 25,000 and 75,000 eggs in an evening, and up to 10 million in a season. The transparent eggs are pelagic and float in the water, hatching after 15–20 hours. The initial larvae have a large yolk sac and lack functional eyes, gut or fins. After 48 hours the yolk is absorbed and the larvae have more of a resemblance to normal fish. These larvae feed on plankton in the water. They grow rapidly, and after around 3–4 weeks from hatching they settle on the substrate. They are highly territorial but, unlike some related species, they do not act 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 ...

. Their diet is thought to be plankton, benthic invertebrates and the mucus secreted by other fish.

Systematics

The rock beauty was first formally described in 1795 as ''Chaetodon tricolor'' by the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

Marcus Elieser Bloch (1723–1799) with the type locality given as Brazil. When

Bernard Germain de Lacépède Bernard-Germain-Étienne de La Ville-sur-Illon, comte de Lacépède or La Cépède (; 26 December 17566 October 1825) was a French natural history, naturalist and an active freemason. He is known for his contribution to the Comte de Buffon's g ...

created the genus '' Holacanthus'' he used ''Chaetodon tricolor'' as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

. The species is placed by some authorities in the

monotypic 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 "unisp ...

subgenus In biology, a subgenus ( 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 the ge ...

''Holacanthus'', all the others being in the subgenus ''Angelichthys''. The specific name of this species, ''tricolor'', refers to the three colour pattern of some adults which have a yellow front and black rear to the body with red fin margins.

Utilisation

The rock beauty is one of the more popular Caribbean marine angelfish in the aquarium trade. It has become available as a captive bred specimens in the 2020s.

References

External links

* * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q729897 rock beauty Fish of the Western Atlantic rock beauty Articles containing video clips Taxa named by Marcus Elieser Bloch