The Japanese angelfish (''Centropyge interrupta'') or Japanese pygmy angelfish, is a species of marine
ray-finned fish, a
marine angelfish belonging to the
family Pomacanthidae. It is found in the western Pacific Ocean.
Description
The Japanese angelfish has an orange body marked with purple and blue spots
It has an orangey yellow body with purplish blue spots completed with a bright yellow tail. The spots are larger towards the tail, and the bottom part the rear of the fish gradually becomes purple. The spots also turn from blue to purple towards the tail. Juveniles has a blue margined black ocellus on the posterior part of the
dorsal fin.
The dorsal fin contains 14 spines and 16 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 3 spines and 17 soft rays. This species attains a maximum
total length of .
[
]
Distribution
The Japanese angelfish is found in the western Pacific Ocean. They occur in southern Japan from Tokyo to Shikoku, as well as around the Izu Islands
The are a group of volcanic islands stretching south and east from the Izu Peninsula of Honshū, Japan. Administratively, they form two towns and six villages; all part of Tokyo Prefecture. The largest is Izu Ōshima, usually called simply Ō ...
and the Ogasawara Islands south of Japan. They also occur in United States waters around Midway Atoll
Midway Atoll (colloquial: Midway Islands; haw, Kauihelani, translation=the backbone of heaven; haw, Pihemanu, translation=the loud din of birds, label=none) is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean. Midway Atoll is an insular area of the Unit ...
and Kure Atoll and reaching south to Pearl and Hermes Atoll.[
]
Habitat and biology
The Japanese angelfish is found at depths between ?[ They are typically encountered as pairs on rocky reefs where there are rich growths of coral and algae. Their diet consists of algae, benthic invertebrates and sponges.][
]
Systematics
The Japanese angelfish was first formally described in 1918 by the Japanese ichthyologist Shigeho Tanaka (1878-1974) with the type locality
Type locality may refer to:
* Type locality (biology)
* Type locality (geology)
See also
* Local (disambiguation)
* Locality (disambiguation)
{{disambiguation ...
given as Tanabe in the Wakayama Prefecture of Japan.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 ...
means “interrupted” and was not explained but may refer to the broken dusky bars on the head. Within the genus '' Centropyge'' this species is considered, by some authorities, to be in the subgenus
In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus.
In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...
''Centropyge''.
Utilisation
The Japanese angelfish is not common in the aquarium trade although it does well a in captivity and has been successfully bred and reared in captivity.[ They can command high prices within the trade.]
References
*
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1683368
Japanese angelfish
Fish of Japan
Fish described in 1918
Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN