Kyphosus ocyurus

Description

Kyphosus ocyurus is a part of the fish family Kyphosidae (Teleosti: Perciformes). Also known as the ‘blue striped chub’, it lives in habitats primarily within the Indo-Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, though many fringe populations have also been identified in the Pacific coastal regions south of the United States of America and Mexico. K. ocyurus is part of the subtropical/tropical in-group defined as Kyphosidae sensu and is the sister species of K. vaigiensis. It can be visually identified by its 15 soft dorsal fin rays, dark-green back, and yellow stripes covering a blue body and a yellow caudal fin. Its conservation status is not critical, as its populations have remained stable and overall population connectivity relatively constant; it is not typically fished commercially. K. ocyurus is herbivorous, and acts as a browser within coral reefs. Its diet primarily consists of primary consumers, pelagic crustaceans and the pelagic larvae of other fish species as well as phaeophytes, chlorophytes and rhodophytes, making it one of the few fish within the Kyphosidae that is omnivorous. K. ocyurus tends not to live in submerged vegetation, preferring a mix of an open water and coral reef environment. In fact, its preferred habitat is that of a hard ocean bottom and ample visibility. Submerged vegetation is preferred for laying fish larvae, and therefore most juveniles and young briefly live in submerged vegetation before reaching adulthood and subsequently moving into a more open ocean environment. In terms of movement and overall K. ocyurus migration, it tends to widely disperse from the Indo-Pacific Ocean region into the East-Pacific Ocean region and eventually into the North Atlantic Ocean region, and these fish can cross the Pacific Ocean barrier relatively smoothly, preventing otherwise major external and environmental disturbances from negatively affecting the population connectivity of the species. The coelomic organs of K. ocyurus are similar to those of most of the other members of the family Kyphosidae. The intestine arrangement of K. ocyurus is complex, with a z-shaped winding pathway with an average length of 28 millimeter., rather than the common single loop, common in many kyphosines but still a more advanced character state when compared to other perciforms. K. ocyurus has three loops tilted to the right in the z-shaped intestinal pathway instead of one loop, which is common in many of its Kyphosidae relatives.