Animalia Life

Caracanthus maculatus
FAMILY
Caracanthidae
TAXONOMY
Caracanthus maculatus Gray, 1831), Tuamotu Island, Polynesia.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
Japanese: Dango-okoze.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Reaches 1.6 in (4 cm) in maximum length. Small, rounded, laterally compressed fishes, with small pectoral fins and pelvic fins with one spine and three rays. Their bodies are covered with papillae, giving them a furry or velvet-like appearance. Typically gray laterally, with numerous red spots on the dorsal and lateral surfaces.
DISTRIBUTION
Can be found from southern Japan to southeastern Polynesia, Australia, and the East Indies.
HABITAT
These inconspicuous fishes can be found among the branches of Acropora, Poecillopora, and Stylophora corals.
BEHAVIOR
Coral crouchers spend most of their time among the branches of corals, rarely venturing away from the coral head. It is not known whether they are venomous.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Little is known about the
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
of these enigmatic scorpionfishes.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Little is known about the reproduction of the spotted coral croucher.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not listed by the IUCN.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
These fishes are too small to be commercially fished, but they are occasionally collected for the aquarium trade, where they are marketed as “gumdrops.”

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