''Neoniphon argenteus'', the clearfin squirrelfish or silver squirrelfish, is a seldom-seen member of the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Holocentridae Holocentridae is a family of ray-finned fish, the only family of the order Holocentriformes. The members of the subfamily Holocentrinae are typically known as squirrelfish, while the members of Myripristinae typically are known as soldierfish.Lie ...

. It is 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

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 ...

from East Africa to New Caledonia. It is also found both north and south of Australia and throughout

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

. It lives mainly around islands and shallow reefs, and like '' N. sammara'' is associated with '' Acropora'' corals. Its depth range is and it can reach sizes of up to TL. It feeds primarily on benthic

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordat ...

. It is found in the ornamental trade and can be used as bait in tuna fisheries, but there are currently no known major threats to the species.

References

External links

Fishes of Australia : ''Neoniphon argenteus''
* clearfin squirrelfish Marine fish of Northern Australia clearfin squirrelfish Taxa named by Achille Valenciennes {{Beryciformes-stub