The foxface rabbitfish (''Siganus vulpinus''), also known as the foxface, black-face rabbitfish or common foxface, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a rabbitfish belonging to the family

Siganidae Rabbitfishes or spinefoots are perciform fishes in the family Siganidae. The 29 species are in a single genus, ''Siganus''. In some now obsolete classifications, the species having prominent face stripes—colloquially called foxfaces– ...

. It is found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It can be found 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.

Taxonomy

The foxface rabbitfish was first formally described as ''Amphacanthus vulpinus'' in 1845 by the German zoologists Hermann Schlegel & Salomon Müller with the

type locality Type locality may refer to: * Type locality (biology) * Type locality (geology) See also * Local (disambiguation) * Locality (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

given as Ternate Island one of the Molucca Islands in Indonesia. The blotched foxface ('' S. unimaculatus'') differs from ''S. vulpinus'' in possessing a large black spot below the soft-rayed part of the dorsal fin. It is

sympatric In biology, two related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter one another. An initially interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct species sh ...

and not phylogenetically distinct, and though these two might be recently evolved species, they may be just colour

morph Morph may refer to: Biology * Morph (zoology), a visual or behavioral difference between organisms of distinct populations in a species * Muller's morphs, a classification scheme for genetic mutations * "-morph", a suffix commonly used in tax ...

s and should arguably to be united under the scientific name ''S. vulpinus''. under the scientific name ''S. vulpinus''. The

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 ...

''vulpinus'' means "fox-like", Schlegel and Müller did not explain what this alluded to but it is thought to be the pointed snout.

Description

The foxface rabbitfish has a compressed body which has a depth which fits into its standard length 1.9 to 2.4 times. The dorsal profile of the head is steep to the rear of the eye and there is an indentation between the eyes and a tubular snout. The caudal fin is weakly forked. There is a procumbent spine in the nape to the front of the dorsal fin. Like all rabbitfishes, the dorsal fin has 13 spines and 10 soft rays while the

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 ...

has 7 spines and 9 soft rays. The fin spines hold venom glands. This species attains a maximum total length of , although is more typical. The main colour on this rabbitfish is vivid yellow with white on the head and front part of the body, however foxfaces can camouflage when experiencing threat, quickly changing colour to a dark brown. There is a black band running backwards from the mouth through the eye to the start of the dorsal fin and there is a black area on the breast that runs upwards to just above the base of the pectoral-fin, tapering as it does so.

Distribution and habitat

The foxface rabbitfish occurs in the far eastern Indian Ocean and in the western Pacific from Indonesia to the Marshall and

Gilbert Islands The Gilbert Islands ( gil, Tungaru;Reilly Ridgell. ''Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia.'' 3rd. Ed. Honolulu: Bess Press, 1995. p. 95. formerly Kingsmill or King's-Mill IslandsVery often, this n ...

north as far as Taiwan and south to

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

and Australia. In Australia it is found from Western Australia on the northern reefs and offshore reefs, at Ashmore Reef in the Timor Sea, and on the east coast in Queensland from the northern Great Barrier Reef to the

Capricorn Islands The islands and reefs of the Capricorn and Bunker Group are situated astride the Tropic of Capricorn at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, approximately 80 kilometres east of Gladstone, which is situated on the central coast of the ...

. It has been recorded as deep as . This species lives in lagoons and seaward reefs where there is a rich growth of corals.

Biology

The foxface rabbitfish is omnivorous, eating mostly algae and zooplankton. They may be territorial, adults are normally found as either solitary individuals or in pairs and are associated with branching ''

Acropora ''Acropora'' is a genus of small polyp stony coral in the phylum Cnidaria. Some of its species are known as table coral, elkhorn coral, and staghorn coral. Over 149 species are described. ''Acropora'' species are some of the major reef corals r ...

'' corals. Juveniles and subadults may sometimes form large schools, feeding on algae growing on the bases of ''Acropora'' corals. This species produces venom in the spines of its fins. In a study of the venom of a congener it was found that rabbitfish venom was similar to the venom of

stonefishes Synanceiinae is a subfamily of venomous ray-finned fishes, waspfishes, which is classified as part of the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes and their relatives. These fishes are found in the Indo-Pacific oceans. They are primarily marine, ...

Utilisation

The foxface rabbitfish appears in the aquarium trade. No statistics are kept for the catch and in some areas this species appears in mixed catches of reef fish, caught by spearfishing.

References

* (2008)
Siganus vulpinus - Foxface
Version of 2008-JAN-14. Retrieved 2008-AUG-31. * (2007): Phylogenetic relationships and natural hybridization in rabbitfishes (Teleostei: Siganidae) inferred from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA analyses. '' Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.'' 45(1): 69–80. (HTML abstract)

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q258544 Siganidae Taxa named by Hermann Schlegel Taxa named by Salomon Müller Fish described in 1845