The ocean surgeon or ocean surgeonfish (''Acanthurus bahianus'') is a tropical

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

known to live in

reefs A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes—deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...

in the western

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, especially the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

. It is sometimes marketed fresh as a food item,Baensch, H.A. and H. Debelius (1997). ''Meerwasser atlas''. Mergus Verlag GmbH, Postfach 86, 49302, Melle, Germany. 3rd edition. but the Ocean surgeon is more often used as bait, or in tropical saltwater aquaria.

Description

Ocean surgeons are known by their

oval An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.) it is given a more precise definition, which may include either one ...

bodies with uniform color (usually

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

gray Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

to dark

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model us ...

), the pale to dark marking around the

eyes Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and con ...

, and the light

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the ...

is now found on their bodies. Most have blue or

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

markings on the

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...

, anal fin, and tail fins and pale bands can sometimes be seen at the base of their tails. They often swim in

schools A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compulsor ...

with other

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 ...

such as the

Atlantic blue tang surgeonfish ''Acanthurus coeruleus'' is a surgeonfish found commonly in the Atlantic Ocean. It can grow up to long.Figueiredo, J.L. and N.A. Menezes, (2000). ''Manual de peixes marinhos do sudeste do Brasil. VI. Teleostei (5)''. Museu de Zoologia, Universid ...

. They have been recorded up to in length. Ocean surgeons have a total of 9 spines on their

Dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...

s and between 23 and 26 soft rays. Their anal fins have only 3 spines and between 21 and 23 rays. Their caudal fins are roughly emarginate, and the surgeonfish's body and head are both deep and compressed.Randall, J.E. (1996). ''Caribbean reef fishes''. Third Edition - revised and enlarged. T.F.H. Publications, Inc. Ltd., Hong Kong. 3rd ed. Smith, C.L. (1997). ''National Audubon Society field guide to tropical marine fishes of the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, the Bahamas, and Bermuda''. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York.

Distribution and habitat

Ocean surgeons inhabit

coral reefs A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Co ...

, where they feed on algae. In the southern and central Atlantic, the Ocean surgeon can be found along the coast of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

from the states of

Maranhão Maranhão () is a state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of . Clockwise from north, it borders on the Atlantic Ocean for 2,243 km and the states of Piauí, Tocantins and ...

, south to Stanta Caterinha.Bernal, M.A. and L.A. Rocha, 2011. Acanthurus tractus Poey, 1860, a valid western Atlantic species of surgeonfish (Teleostei, Acanthuridae), distinct from Acanthurus bahianus Castelnau, 1855. Zootaxa 2905:63-68. This range includes many islands such as

Fernando de Noronha Fernando de Noronha () is an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, part of the State of Pernambuco, Brazil, and located off the Brazilian coast. It consists of 21 islands and islets, extending over an area of . Only the eponymous main island is in ...

Atol das Rocas The Rocas Atoll ( pt, Atol das Rocas ) is the only atoll in the South Atlantic Ocean. It belongs to the Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Norte. It is located approximately northeast of Natal and west of the Fernando de Noronha archipelago. The ...

, Trindade, Ascension Island, and

St. Helena Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constit ...

. This species can also be found in most of the Caribbean Sea

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

and along the Atlantic coast of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1094327 ocean surgeon Fish of the Western Atlantic Taxa named by François-Louis Laporte, comte de Castelnau ocean surgeon