Naso vlamingii
Bignose Unicornfish | Scribbled Unicornfish | Vlaming's Unicornfish | Zebra Unicornfish
Similar Species
Distribution
Tropical Indo-Pacific
Description
Head profile with rounded nose-like bump above mouth, blue or violet stripe across snout between eyes, narrow bars on body which break in to spots on upper body and underside, blue lips, and a large blue or violet patch behind gill cover over pectoral fin base. Males with long trailing filaments from top and bottom of tail. Can rapidly change background colouration between dark and pale. Juveniles olive-brown with a covering of blue spots and dashes.
Information
Max Size: 60 cm
Sea Temperature Range: 24.5-31.3°C
Depth: 1-50 m
Habitat Generalization Index: 12.52
Also referred to as the SGI (Species Generalisation Index), this describes the habitat niche breadth of the species. Species with values less than 15 are found in a relatively narrow range of reef habitat types (specialists), while those over 25 may be found on most hard substrates within their range (generalists). Learn more here.
Conservation and Rarity
IUCN Status: Least Concern
Occurrence: Frequent (13.8% of sites)
Occurrence describes how often the species is found on surveys within its distribution. It is calculated as the % of reef sites surveyed by RLS divers across all the ecoregions in which the species has been observed
Abundance: Few (5 per transect)
Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.
Edit by: Joe Shields