TAXONOMY
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cordata
Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes
Order: Perciformes (Perch-likes)
Family: Zanclidae (Moorish idol)

Genus/species: Zanclus cornutus

 

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS: Discoid body, tubular snout, dorsal spines elongated into a very long white whip-like filament. Broad vertical white, black, white-yellow black, yellow banding. Tail black with white margin. Length to 23 cm (9 inches).

DISTRIBUTION/HABITAT: Indo-pan-Pacific. Southern Gulf of California found near hard substrates from turbid inner harbors and reef flats to clear seaward reefs as deep as 182 m (600 ft). Usually in small groups of conspecifics, occasionally in schools of more than 100.                 

 DIET IN THE WILD: Primarily sponges. Also consumes tunicates and algae.

 REPRODUCTION: It has a long larval phase and settles at a large size (6 cm or 2.4 in) resulting in its very wide geographic distribution.

 CONSERVATION: Not evaluated

REMARKS: The Moorish Idol was the icon of the Golden Gate Park Steinhart Aquarium.

Gill, was the leader of the tank fish in the movie Finding Nemo, with the voice of Willem Dafoe, is a Moorish idol.

Color of Life, Color on the Reef, Color Conceals, Hiding the eye.
Black stripes break up the body outline and hide the eye from predators.

IMG_3304

 Philippine Coral Reef  

 Ron’s flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/cas_docents/sets/72157608440659805/

Ron’s  WordPress Shortlink  http://wp.me/p1DZ4b-Ax

fishbase: http://www.fishbase.org/summary/5950

EOL http://eol.org/pages/204516/hierarchy_entries/44696397/details