Acanthurus olivaceus
No common name
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri)
Acanthuridae (Surgeonfishes)
Acanthurus
Acanthurus olivaceus
Description
This species account was compiled from
FishBase (Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2025. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version 04/2025.)
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Characters
Body shape: short and / or deep. Body of adult dark grayish brown; juveniles yellow; posterior to upper end of gill opening is a bright orange horizontal band, with purplish black border. Head and anterior half of body usually abruptly paler than the posterior half. Anterior gill rakers 24-28; posterior 23-27. Large adult males (about 17 cm) with more definite convexity of snout profile.
Description: Characterized further by having caudal spine length of 2.5 in head length; greatest depth of body 2.0-2.4 in SL (Ref. 90102). Striking features: none.
Distribution
Pacific Ocean: Christmas Island and Cocos-Keeling Islands in the eastern Indian Ocean to the Hawaiian and Tuamoto islands, north to Japan, south to Lord Howe Island. Replaced by Acanthurus tennenti in the Indian Ocean (Ref. 37816).
Habitat Associations
Marine. reef-associated. depth range 3-46 m. Found in: coral reefs.
Biology
Inhabit seaward reefs, in areas of bare rock or mixed rubble and sand, from 9 to at least 46 m depth; juveniles inhabit protected bays and lagoons, singly or in small groups in as little as 3 m (Ref. 1602, 48637). Benthopelagic (Ref. 58302). Adults occur singly or in schools and feed on surface film of detritus, diatoms, and fine filamentous algae covering sand and bare rock (Ref. 1602). Rarely poisonous (Ref. 4795).
Max length: 35.0 cm TL; max age: 33 years.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2010-05-04. Resilience: Very low (tmax=33).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: commercial; aquarium: commercial.
References
Thresher, R.E. (1984) Reproduction in reef fishes. T.F.H. Publications, Inc. Ltd., Neptune City, New Jersey. 399 p.
Myers, R.F. (1991) Micronesian reef fishes. Second Ed. Coral Graphics, Barrigada, Guam. 298 p.
Randall, J.E. (1956) A revision of the surgeonfish genus Acanthurus. Pac. Sci. 10(2):159-235.
Randall, J.E., G.R. Allen and R.C. Steene (1990) Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, Hawaii. 506 p.
Sano, M., M. Shimizu and Y. Nose (1984) Food habits of teleostean reef fishes in Okinawa Island, southern Japan. University of Tokyo Bulletin, no. 25. v,128p. University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo, Japan. 128 p.
Randall, J.E. (2001) Surgeonfishes of Hawai'i and the world.. Mutual Publishing and Bishop Museum Press, Hawai'i. 123 p.
Allen, G.R. and M.V. Erdmann (2012) Reef fishes of the East Indies. Perth, Australia: Universitiy of Hawai'i Press, Volumes I-III. Tropical Reef Research.
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