Longfin Batfish

Size

• Adults grow to approximately 27.5 inches (70 cm) in length.

Body Composition

• The body is rounded and strongly compressed.
• Adult has a bony hump on the forehead and its dorsal and anal fins are high and arched, but in proportion to its body.
• The juvenile looks very different from the adult. It has a very short body with extremely tall dorsal and anal fins and does not have a forehead hump.

Color

• Coloration is yellowish silver or dusky in color and have a short dark vertical bar through the eye and another wider bar behind the operculum.

• Feeds on algae and a variety of invertebrates, such as jellies or other plankton.

Range

• Longfin batfish occurs in the Indo-Pacific from the Red Sea and East Africa to Papua New Guinea, north to the Ryukyu Islands and south to Australia.

Habitat

• Juveniles inhabit sea grass meadows, mangrove areas and floating sargassum weed beds in shallow protected inner reefs.
• Adult is usually found from coastal lagoons out to seaward reefs and occasionally in deeper water offshore.
• Longfin batfish is found most often at depths to 65 feet (20 m).
• Commonly encountered near a deep wreck, mainly in the mid-waters above it.

• “Not Evaluated” on the IUCN Red List.

• Adult may be solitary or occasionally form large schools.
• Juveniles have been observed mimicking floating leaves in coastal waters. They also will form schools under floating rafts of sargassum.
• It is believed that this batfish spawns in the open ocean and its larvae transform into the tall juvenile when it is less than an inch (25 mm) long.
• Another common name for this fish is “teira batfish.”

• www.fishbase.org
• Coral Sea Reef Guide. Halstead, B.
• Southeast Asia Tropical Fish Guide. Kuiter, R. H. and Debelius, H.