General Information

COMMON NAMES: Squaretail Filefish GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE Hawai‘i - Johnston - Rarotonga COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Native, Endemic of e.Polynesia; Marine, near-shore, KEY FEATURES: To 19cm SL. Tail square (or slightly rounded). Uniform brown to grey, ± indistinct pale markings upperside; white saddle on tailbase, ± white spot underside of tailbase. Dorsal, Anal and Pectoral Fins pale yellow, Tail dark grey or brown. SIMILAR SPECIES: Cantherhines paradalis (Wire-net Filefish) usually with pale network on body but can be uniform dark brown, has rounded tail (vs. square tail), Dorsal fin height uniform (vs. elevated anteriorly), tail yellowish (vs. not yellowish). Both species may have 1-2 white spots on tail-stalk.

Cook Islands Distribution

View Distribution Map

Southern Group: Present    Makatea:
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
++					P?

Northern Group:
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW
			P?

Cantherhines sandwichiensis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824)
TAXONOMY: ANIMALIA; CHORDATA; GNATHOSTOMATA (Jawed Vertebrates); PISCES; OSTEICHTHYES; Tetraodontiformes; Tetraodontoidei; Balistoidea; MONACANTHIDAE

Vouchers:
Rarotonga: several fieldsight+photo, SCUBA, 10/2001, M.Francis, ID by Barry Hutchins (WAM). Aitutaki: earlier record which J.Randall thought was mislabelled, could now be this species. Pukapuka: informant reports at NBSAP meeting, 2/2004.

References:
Special Reference: Randall (1996) Shore fishes of Hawai'i (p.191).

p.629 Burgess et al. (1988) Atlas of Marine Aquarium Fishes (TFH)
Species No. -- Munro (1967) Fishes of New Guinea

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zM02, zD02

Web Resources

• Google
• Google Images
• FishBase