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Genicanthus watanabei

Watanabe's Angelfish

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Image:	Adult Male and Female	38KB

General Information

COMMON NAMES: Watanabe's Angelfish, Watanabe's Lyretail Angelfish, Blackedged Angelfish; German Gelbstreiften-Lyrakaiserfisch; French Poisson-ange Lyre du Watanabe

GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE Taiwan - Pitcairn; n. to s.Japan; s. to New Caledonia - Australs

COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Native; PLUS: RR (Dave Simms, photo). Outer reef-slope, 27-35 metres.; Marine, near-shore, outer reef-slope; 25-100m, on steep current-swept slopes, to a few metres of substrate

KEY FEATURES: To 15cm, sexual dimorphic. Deep bodied (2.5x in SL), short snout, long spine on gill cover, high doesal fin and long lunate tail. FEMALE silver-grey has black markings on the forehead, and a black trim on the Dorsal and Anal Fins, and on the upper and lower edges of the Tail. MALE blue-grey with black outer half of Dorsal Fin; lower half of body and Anal Fin with contrasting black and white stripes; the upper black ones with yellow posteriorly.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The three species of Genicanthus have six colour morphs but each morph is distinctive.

Enlarged Image of 'Genicanthus watanabei'

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

Key to Symbols

blank	no data
-	absent	L	localised
X	extinct 'naturally'	W	widespread
XQi	quarantine intercepted	R	recent
XQe	eradicated	?	query preceding category
P	present	T?	taxonomic query
S	seasonal	nn	present, said to have no name
O	occasional	?1	present, name not investigated
++++	very common	?2	presence not verified, no name recorded
+++	common	N/A	absent, name not expected
++	uncommon
+	rare
Cook Islands islands: RR =Rarotonga, MG = Mangaia, AT =‘Ātiu, MK=Ma‘uke, MT=Miti‘āro, AK=Aitutaki, PL=Palmerston, PN=Penrhyn, MN=Manuae, TK=Takūtea, TN=Tongareva (TS=Tongaleva Spoken, TW=Tongareva Written, they say "el" but write "r"), MH=Manihiki, RK=Rakahanga, PK=Pukapuka, NS=Nassau, SW=Suwarrow. After a Polynesian name: ^=orthography query. Countries and other: FIJ=Fiji, WT=Wallis & Futuna, SAM=Samoa, TON=Tonga, NIU=Niue, CK=Cook Islands, CKM=Cook Islands Māori, FP=French Polynesia, AUS=Australs, SOC=Societies, TAH=Tahiti, TUA=Tuamotus, MQS=Marquesas, MNG=Mangareva, PIT=Pitcain group, EAS=Easter Island, HAW=Hawai‘i, NZ=New Zealand, NZM=New Zealand Māori

Scientific Taxonomy

Genicanthus watanabei (Yasuda & Tominaga, 1970)
SYNONYMS: Holacanthus watanabei [O]

TAXONOMY: ANIMALIA; CHORDATA; GNATHOSTOMATA (Jawed Vertebrates); PISCES; OSTEICHTHYES; Perciformes; Percoidei; Percoidea; POMACANTHIDAE

Vouchers & References

Vouchers:
Rarotonga: Photo 27m depth Avarua D.Simms, ID confirmed Randall (Sims88); field ID 2 males 28m & 35m depth Parekura N.Sims (Sims88).

References:
text p.162 Myers (1991 2nd Ed.) Fishes of Micronesia
plate 72a Myers (1991 2nd Ed.) Fishes of Micronesia
p.243 Randall et al. (1990) Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef....
p.358 Burgess et al. (1988) Atlas of Marine Aquarium Fishes (TFH)
plate 71-04 Lieske & Myers (1996) Coral Reef Fishes
plate 60-11 Allen (1997) Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia....

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zM02, zupM06a, zD02

Web Resources

Citation Information

McCormack, Gerald (2007) Cook Islands Biodiversity Database, Version 2007.2. Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust, Rarotonga. Online at http://cookislands.bishopmuseum.org.
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