Bignose unicornfish
Amazing fact
The bignose unicornfish has a protruding snout but lacks a prominent horn on its forehead.
Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The bignose unicornfish has a protruding snout but lacks a prominent horn on its forehead.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Bignose unicornfish
- Scientific name
- Naso vlamingii
- Japanese name
- サザナミトサカハギ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Perciformes
- Family
- Acanthuridae
- Genus
- Naso
It lives in seas around Japan, such as the Ogasawara and Ryukyu Islands, and from Taiwan across the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
How the Bignose unicornfish lives
It feeds during the day in the water above reef slopes. It eats zooplankton. It is sometimes seen in groups. It is also commonly seen around shipwrecks.
Georgia AquariumBasic data
- Range
- Indo-Pacific excluding Red Sea, Hawaiian Islands and Easter Island, Galápagos Islands, and elsewhere
Where the Bignose unicornfish 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
- サザナミトサカハギ
- 简体中文
- 丝尾鼻鱼
- 繁體中文
- 高鼻魚
- 한국어
- 실꼬리표문쥐치
- Español
- Pez Unicornio Narigudo
- Français
- Nason à Gros Nez
- Deutsch
- Masken-Nasendoktorfisch
- Português (Brasil)
- Peixe-unicórnio-de-Vlaming
- Italiano
- Pesce unicorno maggiore
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — サザナミトサカハギChecked: 2026-11-04
- Georgia Aquarium — Bignose UnicornfishChecked: 2026-11-07
- Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium — Bignose unicorn tangChecked: 2026-11-07
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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