|Scientific Name:||Ctenochaetus flavicauda|
|Species Authority:||Fowler, 1938|
|Taxonomic Notes:||Ctenochaetus flavicauda is closely related to C. cyanocheilus (K.D. Clements pers. comm. 2010).|
|Red List Category & Criteria:||Least Concern ver 3.1|
|Assessor/s:||Clements, K.D., Choat, J.H., Abesamis, R., McIlwain, J., Myers, R., Nanola, C., Rocha, L.A., Russell, B. & Stockwell, B.|
|Reviewer/s:||Edgar, G. & Kulbicki, M.|
Ctenochaetus flavicauda is widely distributed in the central Pacific and common in parts of its distribution. It is not specifically targeted and is a minor component of the aquarium trade. There are no major threats known and it occurs in marine reserves in parts of its range. It is therefore listed as Least Concern.
|Range Description:||Ctenochaetus flavicauda is found in the central Pacific from the Phoenix Islands through Cook Islands and French Polynesia to Pitcairn Island, north to Line Islands and south to Rapa.|
Native:Cook Islands; French Polynesia; Kiribati (Kiribati Line Is., Phoenix Is.); Pitcairn; United States Minor Outlying Islands (US Line Is.)
|FAO Marine Fishing Areas:||
Pacific – eastern central
|Range Map:||Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.|
|Population:||Ctenochaetus flavicauda is common outside the fringing reef at Tubuai, Rurutu, Raivavae, Rapa, and the Cook Islands (Randall and Clements 2001). It is rare in the American Samoa National Park (National Park of Samoa Checklist of Fishes accessed 21 April 2010).|
|Habitat and Ecology:||
The genus Ctenochaetus feed on fine detrital material. They whisk the sand or rocky substratum with their teeth and utilize suction to draw in the detrital material that consists of diatoms, small fragments of algae, organic material and fine inorganic sediment (Randall and Clements 2001). Species of Ctenochaetus share the presence of a thick-walled stomach (Randall and Clements 2001), this character is significant with respect to the nutritional ecology of this genus (Choat et al. 2002b).
The sexes are separate among the acanthurids (Reeson 1983). Acanthurids do not display obvious sexual dimorphism, males assume courtship colours (J.H. Choat pers. comm. 2010).
There are no major threats known for this species.
Surgeonfishes show varying degrees of habitat preference and utilization of coral reef habitats, with some species spending the majority of their life stages on coral reef while others primarily utilize seagrass beds, mangroves, algal beds, and /or rocky reefs. The majority of surgeonfishes are exclusively found on coral reef habitat, and of these, approximately 80% are experiencing a greater than 30% loss of coral reef area and degradation of coral reef habitat quality across their distributions. However, more research is needed to understand the long-term effects of coral reef habitat loss and degradation on these species' populations. Widespread coral reef loss and declining habitat conditions are particularly worrying for species that recruit into areas with live coral cover, especially as studies have shown that protection of pristine habitats facilitate the persistence of adult populations in species that have spatially separated adult and juvenile habitats (Comeros-Raynal et al. 2012).
|Conservation Actions:||There are no species-specific conservation measures in place for this species. However, its distribution overlaps with several marine protected areas within its range.|
|Citation:||Clements, K.D., Choat, J.H., Abesamis, R., McIlwain, J., Myers, R., Nanola, C., Rocha, L.A., Russell, B. & Stockwell, B. 2012. Ctenochaetus flavicauda. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 13 December 2013.|
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