The yellowfin goatfish (''Mulloidichthys vanicolensis'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

goatfish The goatfishes are perciform fish of the family Mullidae. The family is also sometimes referred to as the red mullets, which also refers more narrowly to the genus '' Mullus''. The family name and the English common name mullet derived from La ...

native to the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

and the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

Description

''M. vanicolensis'' can reach a maximum length of . The back is red-orange, while the flanks and the belly are whitish and the fins are yellow. The sides show a yellow longitudinal band. This species feeds on crustaceans or worms at night. By day, it forms large aggregations.

Distribution and habitat

These fish are widespread in the Indo-Pacific, from the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

and the

Tuamotus The Tuamotu Archipelago or the Tuamotu Islands (french: Îles Tuamotu, officially ) are a French Polynesian chain of just under 80 islands and atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean. They constitute the largest chain of atolls in the world, extendin ...

, north to Japan and to

Lord Howe Island Lord Howe Island (; formerly Lord Howe's Island) is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, part of the Australian state of New South Wales. It lies directly east of mainland P ...

to the south. The yellowfin goatfish is a reef-associated species. It usually can be found in lagoons and seaward reefs at depths of .

Parasites

Two genera of

monogenea Monogeneans are a group of ectoparasitic flatworms commonly found on the skin, gills, or fins of fish. They have a direct lifecycle and do not require an intermediate host. Adults are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both male and female repro ...

n gill parasites, namely '' Volsellituba'' and '' Pennulituba'', with a total of five different species, including ''V. orchidea'', ''V. nabla'', ''V. elephantina'', ''P. piratifalx'', and ''P. cymansis'', have been reported from the yellowfin goatfish off New Caledonia, and were apparently found only on this species of fish. The apocreadiid digenean ''Homalometron moraveci'' is found in the intestine.

References

External links

Catalogue of Life
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2320381 Mullidae Fish of the Indian Ocean Fish of the Pacific Ocean Fish described in 1831 Taxa named by Achille Valenciennes