''Apolemichthys xanthurus'', the Indian yellowtail angelfish, is a species of
marine angelfish belonging to the
family Pomacanthidae. Other common names include cream angelfish, smoke angelfish, and yellowtail black angelfish. It is found in the Indian Ocean.
Description
''Apolemichthys xanthurus'' Has a body which has a cream background colour with a network of dark lines on the scales creating a lattice pattern over this. The edges of the body are a solid dark colour. The
caudal fin is bright yellow while the
dorsal and
anal fin
Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...
s are black with a white margin.
Like they closely related, Apolemichthys xanthotis this species has a yellow spot on the upper preoperculum but the black on the head does not extend as far as this spot so it contrasts less with its background. The juveniles have a wide black band running over the eye and an oblique are of black on the back, this patch fades as the fish matures.
The dorsal fin contains 14 spines and 17-19 soft rays while the anal fin has 3 spines and 17-18 soft rays. This species attains a maximum total length of .
[
]
Distribution
''Apolemichthys xanthurus'' is found in the Indian Ocean. It occurs in the Mascarenes, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and the eastern coast of India. It has been recorded off Myanmar and Thailand and reported from Sulawesi
Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...
.
Habitat and biology
''Apolemichthys xanthurus'' is typically encountered as solitary individuals or in pairs at depths of on coral and rocky reefs.[
]
Systematics
''Apolemichthys xanthurus'' was first formally described in 1950 as ''Holacanthus xanthotis'' by the British naturalist Edward Turner Bennett (1797–1836) with the type locality
Type locality may refer to:
* Type locality (biology)
* Type locality (geology)
See also
* Local (disambiguation)
* Locality (disambiguation)
{{disambiguation ...
given as Sri Lanka.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 ...
''xanthurus'' means “yellow tail” and refers to the yellow tail which also gives this species one of its common names.allopatric
Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...
'' A. xanthotis'' of the Indian Ocean.
Utilisation and conservation status
''Apolemichthys xanthurus'' is common in the aquarium
An aquarium (plural: ''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. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...
trade[ Collection from the wild is limited, only 100 were allowed to be exported from the Maldives in 2003, and is not considered a threat to the species which is categorised as Least Concern by the ]IUCN
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...
.
References
* Brough, David and McBirney, Carrie.
Indian Yellowtail Angelfish
i
Retrieved August 30.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2704218
xanthurus
Fish described in 1833