Thalassoma bifasciatum, Bluehead : aquarium

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Thalassoma bifasciatum (Bloch, 1791)

Bluehead
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Thalassoma bifasciatum   AquaMaps   Data sources: GBIF OBIS
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Image of Thalassoma bifasciatum (Bluehead)
Thalassoma bifasciatum
Picture by Muséum-Aquarium de Nancy/B. Alenda

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Eupercaria/misc (Various families in series Eupercaria) > Labridae (Wrasses) > Corinae
Etymology: Thalassoma: Greek, thalassa = the sea + Greek, soma = body; the colour of the sea (Ref. 45335).
More on author: Bloch.

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Marine; reef-associated; depth range 0 - 40 m (Ref. 9710), usually 3 - 30 m (Ref. 27115). Tropical; 23°C - 26°C (Ref. 27115); 34°N - 7°N, 99°W - 58°W

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Western Atlantic: Bermuda, Florida (USA), southeastern Gulf of Mexico and throughout the Caribbean Sea to northern South America.

Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 25.0 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 26340); max. reported age: 3.00 years (Ref. 3420)

Short description Morphology | Morphometrics

Dorsal spines (total): 8; Dorsal soft rays (total): 12-13; Anal spines: 3; Anal soft rays: 10 - 11. Body elongate; 3 primary color phases, the smallest with a black mid-lateral stripe which continues as pale red blotches on head; back above stripe yellow on reef fish and whitish on fish from inshore non-reef areas, and body below white. The largest phase, has a bright blue head and a green body with two broad vertical black bars anteriorly which are separated by a light blue interspace; this phase is always male. The small yellow phase with the black stripe may be either male or female (Ref. 13442).

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Inhabits reef areas, inshore bays and seagrass beds. Feeds mainly on zooplankton and small benthic animals, but may also feed on ectoparasites of other fishes (Ref. 9626). Spawn at midday throughout the year (Ref. 26938). A protogynous hermaphrodite (Ref. 55367). Generally of no interest to fisheries because of its small average size (Ref. 5217).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

A diandric species (Ref. 55367). Sex reversal is completed in more than 3-4 weeks (Ref. 34185, 34257). Length at sex change = 8.3 cm TL, forms leks during breeding (Ref. 55367).

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator : Westneat, Mark | Collaborators

Robins, C.R. and G.C. Ray, 1986. A field guide to Atlantic coast fishes of North America. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, U.S.A. 354 p. (Ref. 7251)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)

  Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 12 April 2008

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless





Human uses

Aquarium: commercial
FAO - Publication: search | FishSource |

More information

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Internet sources

AFORO (otoliths) | Aquatic Commons | BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes: genus, species | DiscoverLife | DORIS | ECOTOX | FAO - Publication: search | Faunafri | Fishipedia | Fishtrace | GenBank: genome, nucleotide | GloBI | GoMexSI (interaction data) | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | MitoFish | National databases | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | Public aquariums | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | Socotra Atlas | Tree of Life | Wikipedia: Go, Search | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Preferred temperature (Ref. 123201): 25 - 28.1, mean 26.8 °C (based on 222 cells).
Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804):  PD50 = 0.5000   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00891 (0.00512 - 0.01553), b=3.02 (2.87 - 3.17), in cm total length, based on LWR estimates for this species & Genus-body shape (Ref. 93245).
Trophic level (Ref. 69278):  3.3   ±0.1 se; based on diet studies.
Generation time: 1.5 ( na - na) years. Estimated as median ln(3)/K based on 1 growth studies.
Resilience (Ref. 120179):  High, minimum population doubling time less than 15 months (k=0.7; tmax=3).
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  Low vulnerability (20 of 100).
Nutrients (Ref. 124155):  Calcium = 75.2 [45.5, 123.9] mg/100g; Iron = 0.761 [0.447, 1.351] mg/100g; Protein = 18.6 [15.8, 20.8] %; Omega3 = 0.149 [0.100, 0.227] g/100g; Selenium = 32 [20, 56] μg/100g; VitaminA = 77.7 [25.7, 279.6] μg/100g; Zinc = 1.51 [1.07, 2.36] mg/100g (wet weight);