Assessor flavissimus

Yellow Scissortail | Yellow Assessor | Yellow Devilfish
Assessor flavissimus
Assessor flavissimus, QLD, Australia, Photo: Rick Stuart-Smith
Assessor flavissimus
Assessor flavissimus, Torres Strait, Qld, Photo: Andrew Green
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Assessor flavissimus
Assessor flavissimus

Distribution

Tropical Indo-Pacific


Description

Yellow body, orange streak from snout through eye, dorsal and anal fins with orange margin, forked tail. Swims upside down under ledges and in caves, belly aligned to reef surface. Similar A. macneilli (Blue Scissortail) is blue, and Pseudochromis (Dottybacks) lack forked tail.


Information

Max Size: 6 cm

Sea Temperature Range: 23.8-29.9°C

Depth: 5-20m

Habitat Generalization Index: 5.57

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: Not Evaluated

Occurrence: Common (23.1% 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: Many (11 per transect)

Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.


Edit by: RD Stuart-Smith, GJ Edgar, AJ Green, IV Shaw. 2015. Tropical Marine Fishes of Australia. Reed New Holland