Blackedged angelfish facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Blackedged angelfish |
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Holacanthus watanabei Yasuda & Tominaga, 1970 |
The blackedged angelfish, also known as Watanabe's angelfish, is a beautiful type of marine angelfish. It's a ray-finned fish that lives in the Pacific Ocean. This fish belongs to a group of fish called Pomacanthidae.
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What Does It Look Like?
Blackedged angelfish are special because the males and females look quite different. This is called sexual dichromatism.
Male angelfish are light blue or bluish-grey on top. The bottom part of their bodies has eight thin black stripes. The top stripe often ends with a splash of yellow.
Females are mostly light blue. They have wide black stripes across their heads and a black spot on their nose.
Both males and females have a wide black band near the edges of their dorsal (top) and anal fins (bottom). This band is also on the parts of their caudal fin (tail). Young fish look a bit like the females.
Both sexes have a forked tail that gets narrow at its base. This makes it look like a "swallow tail." The dorsal fin has 15 to 16 stiff spines and 15 to 16 soft rays. The anal fin has 3 spines and 14 to 17 soft rays. This fish can grow up to 15 centimeters (about 6 inches) long.
Where Does It Live?
The blackedged angelfish lives in the Pacific Ocean. You can find it from Taiwan all the way east to the Cook Islands and Tuamotu Archipelago. It also lives north near the Ryukyu Islands and south near New Caledonia and the Austral Islands.
These angelfish are also found on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Young fish have even been seen as far south as Sydney.
Home and Habits
Blackedged angelfish live in waters between 12 and 81 meters (about 40 to 265 feet) deep. They like the outer slopes of coral reefs and steep drop-offs. These areas often have strong ocean currents.
They eat tiny floating organisms called plankton that drift in the water. Like other angelfish in their group, the blackedged angelfish is a protogynous hermaphrodite. This means they start their lives as females. The strongest female in a group can change into a male.
They have a special way of mating called a lek mating system. In this system, big males control certain areas. Many females can swim freely between these male territories. The largest and most powerful males usually prefer to mate with the younger females.
How It Got Its Name
The blackedged angelfish was first officially described in 1970. It was named by two Japanese scientists, Fujio Yasuda and Yoshiaki Tominaga. They found the first fish near Onna Beach on Okinawa.
The fish was named after a Japanese scientist named Masao Watanabe. He was from Waseda University in Tokyo. Mr. Watanabe was the first person to collect this fish. However, he thought it was a different type of angelfish at the time.
Is It Kept as a Pet?
The blackedged angelfish is not a very common fish in the aquarium trade. The few fish that are sold as pets usually come from the Philippines and from Melanesia.
