Naso hexacanthus
Sleek Unicornfish | Black Unicornfish | Blacktongue Unicornfish | Blue-tail Unicornfish | Nohorn Unicorn | Thorpe's Unicornfish
Similar Species
Distribution
Tropical Indo-Pacific
Description
Bluish-grey body fading to yellowish-grey on belly, deep chest profile, dark oblique bar on gill cover, groove in front of eye, two tail spines and blue tail with dark bar at rear. Oblique dark bar on operculum distinguishes it from N. caeruleacauda (Blue Unicornfish) and N. caesius (Silverblotched Unicornfish).
Information
Max Size: 75 cm
Sea Temperature Range: 23-31.4°C
Depth: 6-150m
Habitat Generalization Index: 4.4
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.
Conservation and Rarity
IUCN Status: Least Concern
Occurrence: Infrequent (5.8% 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: Many (13 per transect)
Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.
Edit by: Joe Shields