Plesiops coeruleolineatus, common names Crimsontip longfin and Coral devil is a species of fish in the family Plesiopidae.

Description

This species has an elongate body that grows to a length of approximately 8.5 cm to 10 cm. Although colours vary, it is generally has a black or brown body, with two dark stripes behind the eye. The dorsal spines are tipped with orange or red, bordered below with a line white. It has a bluish stripe running along the basal part of the dorsal fin.

Distribution

Plesiops coeruleolineatus is widely found in the Indo-Pacific

Indo-Pacific

The Indo-Pacific is a biogeographic region of the Earth's seas, comprising the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the seas connecting the two in the general area of Indonesia...

 from the Red Sea

Red Sea

The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...

 and East Africa

East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...

, east to the Samoa Islands, Oceania

Oceania

Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...

, and southern Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, and south to Australia at Queensland.

It has been recorded in such specific locations as Cargados Carajos

Cargados Carajos

Cargados Carajos Shoals are a group of about 16 small islands and islets on an extended reef in the Indian Ocean northeast of Mauritius. The islands have a total land area of 1.3 km². The reef measures more than 50 km from north to south, and is 5 km wide, cut by three passes. The...

, Comores, Eritrea

Eritrea

Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...

, Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

, Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

, Mauritius

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

, Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

, Réunion

Réunion

Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...

, and the Seychelles

Seychelles

Seychelles , officially the Republic of Seychelles , is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar....

.

Habitat

This is a very common yet secretive species. It lives in shallow, outer-reef areas in depths of up to 15 metres. It can be found within a depth range of 1 to 23 metres. During the daytime, it usually remains under coral and stones in lagoons and in flood basins. It may appear when disturbing rubble in pools. It emerges at night, venturing into the open to feed on fishes, gastropods, and small crustacean

Crustacean

Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...

s. It ventures out in the open at night to feed on small crustaceans, fishes and gastropods.

Synonyms

• Pharopteryx melas (Bleeker, 1849)
• Pharopteryx semeion (Tanaka, 1917)
• Plesiops caeruleolineatus Rüppell, 1835
• Plesiops melas Bleeker, 1849
• Plesiops nigricans apoda Kner, 1868
• Plesiops semeion Tanaka, 1917
• Plesiops welas Bleeker, 1849
• Pseudochromichthys riukianus Schmidt, 1931

External links

• Images