Elegant fins, stylish patterns

At Tokyo Sea Life Park showcase a variety of organisms that inhabit coral reef areas.

Among them is a fish with eye-catching black and yellowish-white stripes. This is a longfin surgeonfish, a type of surgeonfish that grows to about 15 cm in length. It inhabits the warm waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans and mainly feeds on small algae that grow on the surface of rocks and corals. Although its name includes "surgeonfish," it is not a type of triggerfish but a type of surgeonfish, so it has a small spine near the base of its tail fin.

It has several distinctive features, but the most prominent are its dorsal and anal fins.

These two fins, which give the fish its name, spread out long and wide vertically. They are usually closed, but when the fish opens its fins, such as when startled by another fish or when being cleaned by Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse, it can appear to double in size, creating quite an impressive sight.

Its English name is Sailfin Tang, which comes from the fact that its large fins resemble a sail.

Furthermore, the striped pattern on its body is not just a simple stripe pattern; upon closer inspection, you can see that there are thin stripes and polka dots within the black bands. The distinctive dorsal and anal fins also feature stripes with a different appearance.

At first glance, it looks like a plain, monochrome fish, but if you look closely, you'll see that it has many intricate and stylish patterns.

Incidentally, the stripes on the longfin surgeonfish are not vertical as you might think, but horizontal. When looking at the stripes on a fish, the direction of the stripes is determined by the direction in which they run when the fish is facing upwards, and in the case of the longfin surgeonfish, the stripes are horizontal.

While the longfin surgeonfish may appear calm at first glance, it actually has many unique characteristics. Take a close look and be sure to see it with its fins spread out.

[Tokyo Sea Life Park]