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Mimic Surgeonfish
Acanthurus pyroferus Kittlitz, 1834
A Mimic Surgeonfish at a depth of 18m, "Steve's Bommie", Ribbon Reef #3, Great Barrier Reef off Cooktown, Queensland, December 2001. View larger image.
A Mimic Surgeonfish at a depth of 25m, Great Detached Reef, far northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, November 2001. View larger image.
A juvenile Mimic Surgeonfish at North Solitary Island, New South Wales. This fish is mimicking a Pearl-scaled Angelfish (view fact sheet). These two species can be distinguished by their mouth shape and presence of a strong spine on the preoperculum of all angelfishes. Mimic Surgeonfish have no spine. (See lower image).
The head of a juvenile Mimic Surgeonfish. Note the absence of a strong spine on the lower margin of the preoperculum.
Adult Mimic Surgeonfish are yellowish to dark brown, with a paler head. The opercular margin (glossary) is dark and the region above the pectoral fin is orange.
Juvenile Mimic Surgeonfish show several colour forms that mimic different species of angelfishes (Family Pomacanthidae). As the Mimic Surgeonfish grows it eventually becomes larger than the angelfish species it is mimicking. It then changes to the adult colouration.
The Mimic Surgeonfish grows to 25cm in length.
It occurs in tropical marine waters throughout the Western and Central Pacific.
In Australia it is recorded from the offshore reefs of north-western Western Australia and the northern Great Barrier Reef to northern New South Wales. Small juveniles that are carried south by the East Australian Current are occasionally found in marine waters of southern New South Wales.
View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.
The common name "Surgeonfish" refers to the spine(s) on the caudal peduncle (glossary). Fishes in the genus Acanthurus have a sharp, scalpel-like spine on either side of the caudal peduncle that can be raised and used as a weapon. These spines are highly modified body scales (view scale pages).
Further reading
- Allen, G.R. 1997. Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-east Asia. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 292.
- Kuiter, R.H. 1996. Guide to Sea Fishes of Australia. New Holland. Pp. 433.
- Kuiter, R.H. 2000. Coastal Fishes of South-eastern Australia. Gary Allen. Pp. 437.
- Johnson, G.D. & A.C. Gill in Paxton, J.R. & W.N. Eschmeyer (Eds). 1994. Encyclopedia of Fishes. Sydney: New South Wales University Press; San Diego: Academic Press [1995]. Pp. 240.
- Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 557.
