Aspidontus taeniatus, NSW, Australia, Photo: Rick Stuart-Smith
Aspidontus taeniatus, NSW, Australia, Photo: Tom Davis
Aspidontus taeniatus, NSW, Australia, Photo: Ian Shaw
Distribution
Temperate Australasia, Tropical Indo-Pacific
Description
Black stripe from snout through eye and expanding towards tail, above and below white/grey on for body and blue on rear of body and tail. Mimics Labroides dimidiatus (Common Cleanerfish) almost perfectly, but mouth is on underside of snout. Mimics this species to approach larger fishes and nip pieces of skin and scales off for food.
Information
Max Size: 12 cm
Sea Temperature Range: 16.0-31.3°C
Depth: 1-25m
Habitat: Coral Reef, Rocky Reef
Habitat Generalisation Index: 1.4
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
Rarity
IUCN Threat Status: Not Evaluated
Occurrence: Infrequent (3% 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: Solitary (1 per transect)
Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.
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