Moorish Idol

moorish ideol
A Moorish Idol swims along a reef bottom in the South Pacific Photo credit: NOAA

The Zanclus cornutus or Moorish idol fish mates for life. They are extremely colorful, with large stripes or bands of yellow, black and white that dominant their disk-like bodies.

They grow to just over nine inches and spend their lives in tropical reefs and lagoons in the Indian Ocean, Hawaii, southern sections of Japan and along the south end of the Gulf of California all the way to Peru.

The Moorish idol has thin, long spiny dorsal fins, which become smaller with age. They eat numerous invertebrates, coral and sponges and lay their eggs and sperm in the water. The fertilized eggs are left to fend for themselves.

Text source: Wikipedia under Creative Commons licence.

© Copyright Vince Capone 2013