Species: Dascyllus aruanus, Whitetail Dascyllus

Dascyllus aruanus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Whitetail Dascyllus

Body a deep oval, compressed; upper and lower head profiles convex; snout very short, blunt; bone under eye and preoperculum finely serrated; head scaled except for front of snout; bone under eye scaled; teeth conical; gill rakers 21-26; dorsal fin XII, 11-13; anal fin II, 11-13; pectoral fin 17-19; tail fin bluntly forked, upper and lower edges of fin base with 2-3 short, projecting spiny rays; scales large, 15-19 on lateral line.

Head and body white; three broad black bars from top to bottom profiles: 1st from nape through eye and enclosing mouth, 2nd from center of spinous dorsal fin through pectoral base and to pelvics, 3rd on tail base; tail fin white; dorsal fin white, with black edge and last two black body bars extending across it; anal fin black, with white front; pectorals translucent, with black base; pelvics black

Reaches 10 cm

Forms aggregations around small live branching coral colonies

Depth range 1-20 m

Indo-central Pacific; introduced to SE Florida.