Learn about our top five favourite tropical fish! Read on to hear how fish help maintain a balanced eco system and find out the connection between 19th century convicts and a small white fish.
Lined Surgeonfish
The Lined Surgeonfish (Acanthurus lineatus) takes part of its name from the beautiful stripes of yellow and blue-tinged black decorating its body. Their fins are darker and edged with blue; they have a grey belly and are approximately 38cm long. It's called a surgeonfish due to the incredibly sharp spines on both sides of the tail resembling surgeons' scalpels.
Juvenile lined Surgeonfish are solitary, but they live in a group in adulthood. An adult male will live with numerous females and fiercely defend their territory and feeding area. You'll find this electrifying species living in the Indian Ocean between East Africa and the Pacific Ocean, Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Japan, Polynesia, and Hawaii.
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Lined Surgeonfish
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Red Lionfish
The red lionfish (Pterois volitans) is a coral reef fish with a lifespan of approximately ten years. Its name comes from the venomous spikes that project from its body like a mane. The red lionfish is quite an intimidating character, as it is one of the largest species of lionfish (measuring up to 18.5 inches) and has very few predators.
It is native to the Indo-Pacific region, but this invasive species has travelled as far afield as the Caribbean Sea, the East Coast of the United States, the East Mediterranean and Brazil. Efforts are underway to encourage the fishing and consumption of the red lionfish to thin its numbers. The lionfish has a big appetite and a varied diet. Combined with its large population, the effect is very damaging to the food chains of the ecosystems it has intruded on.
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Red lionfish
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Vagabond butterflyfish
The Vagabond butterflyfish (Chaetodon vagabundus) has a beautiful chevron striped white body, black eye bands and bright yellow fins. You'll find the Vagabond butterflyfish in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the eastern coast of Africa, the Indian Ocean, southern Japan and south of New South Wales, Australia and Rapa Iti.
It lives alone as a juvenile, but once the Vagabond butterflyfish reaches adulthood, this monogamous species will pair up with another fish to defend their territory jointly. It's an omnivorous species with a diet consisting of algae, coral polyps, sea anemones and worms. The average length of a Vagabond butterflyfish is 15cm, but larger examples up to 23cm are known.
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Vagabond butterflyfish
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Orange-lined triggerfish
The Orange-lined triggerfish (Balistapus undulatus) has lovely orange stripes covering its dark green or brown body. It is a solitary, territorial species that can be aggressive to other fish. When it feels threatened, it will raise its first dorsal spine as a show of intimidation.
A study in East Africa showed how the orange-lined triggerfish plays a vital role in the marine ecology of coral reefs. This fish has a varied diet, including the consumption of sea urchins. The orange-lined triggerfish's role in the local food chain is to manage the population numbers of the species lower down by eating them. This is important as an environment with too many sea urchins can disrupt the health of a coral reef, contribute to erosion, and impact the number of algae available for other species to eat.
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Orange-lined triggerfish
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Convict Surgeonfish
The Convict surgeonfish (Acanthurus triostegus), also known as the Convict Tang, has six distinctive black stripes decorating its white or silver body. The striped uniforms worn by 19th-century prisoners are the inspiration behind its name. They are approximately seven inches long and have a yellow tinged dorsal fin and a retractable sharp spine on the caudal peduncle (the base of the tail fin) for defence or attack. They are widespread in the Indo-Pacific and Pacific region, Indonesia, the Hawaiian Islands, and the lower Gulf of California and the Panamas. You'll find Convict surgeonfish living in schools around lagoons, reef slopes, bays and estuaries feeding on marine algae and zooplankton.
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Convict surgeonfish
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Interested in learning more?
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