Whitespotted filefish
Cantherhines dumerilii
Valid name (FishBase; confirmed in Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes and WoRMS, October 2026).
- English
- Whitespotted filefish
- Scientific
- Cantherhines dumerilii
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Reef fish
- Maximum size
- Up to about 38 cm (total length); commonly 25 cm
- Depth and habitat
- Coral reefs and reef-associated habitats, recorded from 0 to 70 m (usually 6 to 35 m)
- IUCN status
- LC · Least ConcernLeast Concern (LC), assessed 2015
Description
A greyish-brown filefish with about 12 faint vertical dark bars, whitish lips, an orange tail and, in males, orange spines on the tail base. It lives in pairs or alone on offshore reefs and bites off the tips of branching corals, as well as eating algae, sponges and urchins. Juveniles drift offshore under floating objects.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives on the FishBase country checklist (status: present). No Maldives-specific information was found in MRS (1997) or the other sources reviewed, and no Dhivehi name is recorded.
Sources
- fishbase.se /summary/Cantherhines-dumerilii.html
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Cantherhines_dumerili.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No Dhivehi name found in MRS 1997 (available chapters), FishBase (country: Maldives) or Dhivehi Wikipedia.