| Remarks |
This species is reported to be found to as deep as 70 m, although the deepest recorded voucher specimen is 20 m. During the day, adults hide in caves or under ledges and large boulders in schools, emerging at night to feed on large nocturnal plankton. They are also observed to return to shelter each morning, sometimes at the same sites. During the day, juveniles up to a length of 40 mm form groups of up to 150 individuals hovering over Ecklonia-covered rocks or kelp forest, and are never far from shelter. Adult diet observed to consists of amphipods (45%), mysids (20%), polychaetes (20%), isopods (7%), and crab larvae and ostracods (8%) which are taken out of the water column c. 4-5 m from the bottom. Juveniles that are less than 40 mm are diurnal feeders, mostly feeding on small copepods. Some groups were observed to enter rivers by night in summer and swim well upstream into mangrove forests to feed on crab larvae, shrimps, amphipods, and other zooplankton. This species can be a very common and conspicuous component of rocky reef fauna (Ref. 88976). |