Bicolored foxface
(Siganus uspi)
General data
The bicolored foxface has a laterally compressed deep body, its depth fitting roughly a little over twice into its standard length with a weakly forked caudal fin. The forward nostril opening is a very short tube which expands slightly to the rear of the nostril and it has a procumbent spine in front of the dorsal fin. Like all rabbitfishes, has 13 spines and 10 soft rays in the dorsal fin while the anal fin has 7 spines and 9 soft rays. The fin spines hold venom glands.
This species attains a maximum total length of 24 cm (9.4 in).
The overall colour is dark purplish brown apart from the yellow pectoral fins, soft rayed part of the dorsal and anal fins, the caudal fin, and rear part of body, the delineation of the 2 colours is clear.
The bicolored foxface has only been recorded from Fiji, although there have been reports of vagrants off New Caledonia, albeit unconfirmed.
They are found at depths between 3 and 20 m (9.8 and 65.6 ft) in areas of hard corals on the slopes of drop-offs at the reef edges or in the deeper pools within the rest of reefs.
