The foxface rabbitfish (''Siganus vulpinus''), also known as the foxface, black-face rabbit fish, badger fish or the common foxface is a species of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

, a

rabbitfish Rabbitfishes or spinefoots, genus ''Siganus'', are perciform fishes in the family (biology), family Siganidae. It is the only Extant taxon, extant genus in its family and has 29 species. In some now obsolete classifications, the species having ...

belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Siganidae Siganidae, the rabbitfishes, are a small family of ray-finned fishes in the order Perciformes. The only extant genus is '' Siganus'', the rabbitfish and spinefoot. However, a number of genera are known from fossils. The extant species are marine ...

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

aquarium An aquarium (: 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. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...

trade.

Taxonomy

The foxface rabbitfish was first formally described as ''Amphacanthus vulpinus'' in 1845 by the German zoologists

Hermann Schlegel Hermann Schlegel (10 June 1804 – 17 January 1884) was a German ornithologist, herpetologist and ichthyologist. Early life and education Schlegel was born at Altenburg, the son of a brassfounder. His father collected butterflies, which stimulated ...

Salomon Müller Salomon Müller (7 April 1804 – 29 December 1864) was a German natural history, naturalist. He was born in Heidelberg, and died in Freiburg im Breisgau. Müller was the son of a saddler in Heidelberg. Along with Heinrich Boie and Heinrich Christi ...

with the type locality given as Ternate Island one of the

Molucca Islands The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West Melanesi ...

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 A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

. It is

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

and not

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

ally distinct, and though these two might be recently evolved species, they may be just colour morphs 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 moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

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 Marshall may refer to: Places Australia *Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria ** Marshall railway station Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Is ...

and

Gilbert Islands The Gilbert Islands (;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 name applied o ...

north as far as Taiwan and south to

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

and Australia. In Australia it is found from

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

on the northern reefs and offshore reefs, at

Ashmore Reef The Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands is an uninhabited Australian external territory consisting of four low-lying tropical islands in two separate reefs (Ashmore and Cartier), as well as the territorial sea generated by the islands ...

in the

Timor Sea The Timor Sea (, , or ) is a relatively shallow sea in the Indian Ocean bounded to the north by the island of Timor with Timor-Leste to the north, Indonesia to the northwest, Arafura Sea to the east, and to the south by Australia. The Sunda Tr ...

, and on the east coast in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

from the northern

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

to the Capricorn Islands. 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 ...

'' corals. Juveniles and subadults may sometimes form large schools, feeding on algae growing on the bases of ''Acropora'' corals. This species produces

venom Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...

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.

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 Spearfishing is fishing using handheld elongated, sharp-pointed tools such as a spear, gig, or harpoon, to impale the fish in the body. It was one of the earliest fishing techniques used by mankind, and has been deployed in artisanal fishi ...

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