The hawkfish anthias (''Serranocirrhitus latus''), also known as the swallowtail basslet, coral perch, hawk anthias, fathead anthias, or sunburst anthias, 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 ...

in 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 ...

Anthiadidae Anthias are members of the family Anthiadidae in the order Perciformes. The group has also been called Anthiidae or Anthiinae, but these names are preoccupied by a subfamily of ground beetles in the family Carabidae erected by Bonelli in 1813 ...

. It is the only member of the genus ''Serranocirrhitus''. It is found in the

Western Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five 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 bounded by the contine ...

. It is sometimes found in the

aquarium An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...

trade.

Description

The hawkfish anthias has a deep body, notably deeper than other members of the subfamily Anthiinase, and elongated

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 that reach to the rear part of 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 ...

. Overall it is pinkish in colour with each scale having a bright yellow to orange marking. There are two bright yellow stripes radiating from the back of the eye and a yellow spot on the operculum. 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 ...

has 10 spines and 18–20 soft rays while the

has 3 spines and 7 soft rays. The 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 ...

attained is .

Distribution

The hawkfish anthias is distributed from southern Japan, where it occurs in the

Ryukyu The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Geography of Taiwan, Taiwan: the Ryukyu Islands are divided into the Satsunan Islands (Ōsumi Islands, Ōsumi, Tokara Islands, Tokara and A ...

and

Izu Islands The are a group of volcanic islands stretching south and east from the Izu Peninsula of Honshū, Japan. Administratively, they form two towns and six villages; all part of Tokyo Prefecture. The largest is Izu Ōshima, usually called simply Ōsh ...

, and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

south to the

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

and Palau. It occurs as far west as the

Moluccas The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West Melanesi ...

and east to Tonga.

Habitat and biology

The hawkfish anthias is found in inshore waters in the vicinity of coral reefs, small groups may occur near caves, overhangs and drop-offs, at depths of . It can be found singly or in small groups and tends to be a secretive species which frequently swims upside down under overhangs or cave ceilings. They are faithful to a specific shelter. Their diet consists mainly of

zooplankton Zooplankton are the heterotrophic component of the planktonic community (the " zoo-" prefix comes from ), having to consume other organisms to thrive. Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents. Consequent ...

. Hawkfish anthias are

protogynous hermaphrodite Sequential hermaphroditism (called dichogamy in botany) is one of the two types of hermaphroditism, the other type being simultaneous hermaphroditism. It occurs when the organism's sex changes at some point in its life. A sequential hermaphrodite ...

s and when a male in a loose aggregation dies or dis appears the dominant female changes sex to become the male.

Taxonomy

The hawkfish anthias was first formally described by Masao Watanbe in 1949 with the type locality given as

Itoman, Okinawa is a city located in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. The city occupies the southern tip of Okinawa Island. As of 1 October 2020, the city has an estimated population of 61,007 and a population density of . The total area is . Geography Itoman sits ...

, in the Ryukyus. Watanabe placed the new species in 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 ''Serranocirrhitus'' within the

hawkfish Cirrhitidae, the hawkfishes, are a Family (biology), family of marine ray-finned fishes found in tropical seas and which are associated with coral reefs. Taxonomy The Cirrhitidae were first recognised as a family by the Scotland, Scots-born Aust ...

family,

Cirrhitidae Cirrhitidae, the hawkfishes, are a family of marine ray-finned fishes found in tropical seas and which are associated with coral reefs. Taxonomy The Cirrhitidae were first recognised as a family by the Scots-born Australian naturalist William ...

. In 1962 the Australian

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

Gilbert Percy Whitley Gilbert Percy Whitley (9 June 1903 – 18 July 1975) was a British-born Australian ichthyologist and malacologist who was curator of fishes at the Australian Museum in Sydney for about 40 years. Early life and education Gilbert Percy Whitley ...

described a new species which he also placed in a monospecific genus and named ''Dactylanthias mcmichaeli'', although he placed this species in the grouper family Serranidae, as one of the anthias. Later John E. Randall and Phillip C. Heemstra were able to show that ''S. latus'' and ''D. mcmichaeli'' were

synonymous 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 ...

and that the species should be placed in the subfamily Anthiinea of the Serranidae. It is the only species in its genus.

Utilisation

The hawkfish anthias is rare in the aquarium trade although it is highly sought after and some populations have declined due to harvesting for this trade.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1141568 Anthiadidae Fish of the Pacific Ocean Fish described in 1949