Palette surgeonfish
Amazing fact
Palette surgeonfish lie on their sides and play dead when spotted by a predator.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Palette surgeonfish lie on their sides and play dead when spotted by a predator.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Palette surgeonfish
- Scientific name
- Paracanthurus hepatus
- Japanese name
- ナンヨウハギ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Perciformes
- Family
- Acanthuridae
- Genus
- Paracanthurus
A fish of warm coral reefs in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Its body is a vivid sky blue, and it has a sharp spine at the base of its tail.
It feeds mainly on algae, pulling it off rocks and coral with its small teeth.
How the Palette surgeonfish lives
They also eat zooplankton. On the reef, they form schools for protection. When alarmed, they sometimes hide behind rocks or inside branching corals.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Size
- 12–38 cm
- Weight
- average 600 g
- Lifespan
- up to 20 years in captivity, 8–20 years in captivity
- Diet
- Algae, microalgae, other marine plants, and zooplankton
- Range
- Indian and Pacific Oceans
Where the Palette surgeonfish has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ナンヨウハギ
- 简体中文
- 黄尾副刺尾鱼
- 繁體中文
- 擬刺尾鯛
- 한국어
- 청색양쥐돔
- Español
- Pez cirujano azul
- Français
- Chirurgien Bleu
- Deutsch
- Paletten-Doktorfisch
- Português (Brasil)
- Cirurgião-patela
- Italiano
- Pesce chirurgo tavolozza
- العربية
- الهيبو تانج
- Русский
- Голубой хирург
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Paracanthurus hepatusChecked: 2026-11-03
- 鳥羽水族館 — ナンヨウハギChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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