Forcipiger

Yellow masks butterflyfish ( Forcipiger flavissimus )

Forcipiger is a species-poor, only two, the other strongly similar types of species of the butterfly fish ( Chaetodontidae ). The genus has the widest distribution of all butterflyfish species. It stretches from the Red Sea and the east coast of Africa over the entire tropical Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean to southern Baja California, the Revillagigedo and Galápagos Islands, and the Pacific coast of Panama. The northern limit of distribution lies on the shores of southern Japan, at the Ogasawara Islands and Hawaii, in the South they come before in the Lord Howe Island.

Features

The two kinds are a maximum of 22 inches long, have high backs and yellow in color. The top of the head is dark, black at Forcipiger flavissimus, the underside white. Dorsal and anal fins are yellow with light blue edges. Both species form in some regions, especially in the Pacific, melanistic, brown or black morphs. The muzzle is pulled out very long, longer than Chelmon what the fish was the German trivial name Pinzettfische. Both types carry a small eye spot at the top, soft-rayed portion of anal fin. They are considered as the sister group of a clade of common Hemitaurichthys, Johnrandallia and banner fish ( Heniochus ).

Way of life

Grown Forcipiger are territorial and live solitary or in pairs in coral and rocky reefs. Forcipiger species feed on small invertebrates that they can move with their long snouts of dense coral pinnacles and crevices. They also eat the Ambulakralfüßchen of sea urchins, which they sent to pick between the spines or the gills of polychaetes ( Polychaeta ). The postlavalen young forms are relatively large, which is probably due to a long pelagic larval phase.

Species

• Yellow masks butterflyfish ( Forcipiger flavissimus ) ( type species ); Jordan & McGregor, 1898.
• Long mouth butterflyfish ( Forcipiger longirostris ) ( Broussonet, 1782 ). Has a longer muzzle and less Dorsal spines as Forcipiger flavissimus.