Scrawled Filefish

Organisms / Vertebrates / Fish

Aluterus scriptus

Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary,  (24.545N, 81.407W)

March 22, 2006

Photograph by Zachary Jordan

 

Descriptive Information

    Field Marks: An elongate, laterally compressed fish with a grey body color that is lightly covered by small, scattered, black spots and iridescent blue stripes and dots.
    Size: Up to 3 feet (91 cm) long.
    General Habitat: Open waters around coral reefs.
    Range: Warm seas around the world.

Field Observations
The body shape of the filefish was extremely long and compressed side-to-side. The first dorsal fin is a single spike. The fish also has a prominent second dorsal fin and a prominent anal fin, which together are responsible for the majority of the forward propulsion. The caudal fin was long and relatively fleshy, but was collapsed for the majority of the observation and appeared to be used mainly as a rudder rather than for propulsion. The main body coloring was a light grey with distal ends slightly darker. It had a very faint body pattern in the grey regions that resembled the pattern of the corals. The black dot markings were scattered along the entire body and were slightly more concentrated at the head and tail regions, especially near the eyes and the base of the caudal fin. The light blue markings were both lines and spots, with the lines running the near the dorsal and ventral bodylines and the dots along the lateral bodyline. Two filefish, possibly a mating pair, were observed swimming along the reef at a relatively slow speed in a shallow spot on the reef, in from three to six feet of water. During the observation, the fish swam with their body at slight angle, and would roll from swimming on one side to swimming on the opposite side about every ten to fifteen seconds. The fish showed little or no concern of being followed and observed and appeared to show mild interest in people.

References
Smith, C. Lavett. National Audubon Society Field Guide to Tropical Marine Fishes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.

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