Page 113 - Caribbean Reef Life Demo

O (Opistognathus aurifrons) < 10 cm / 4 in Yellow head and a pale bluish body. Random dark marks on face. Large eyes. Rounded tail. Found in holes in sand.
ellowhead aw sh are found in colonies on sand patches, and hover vertically above small holes in the sand. Each jaw sh constructs an elaborate burrow, lining it with larger pieces of rubble to avoid a cave-in. They can be seen tidying house as they spit out unwanted sand and debris and sometimes even raiding another’s burrow for choice pieces of building material. At night they take a larger piece of rubble and use it to cover their burrows while they rest. They feed on plankton that drifts over the sand, but at the rst sign of danger they slowly swim backwards into their hole, tail rst. They may dart in head rst when suddenly alarmed. The juveniles on the left have darker yellow heads while the adults above have brighter blue edges on their ns.
The female deposits eggs into her partner’s burrow and then the male takes over. aw sh are mouth-brooders: after he fertilizes the eggs the male carries them in his mouth for up to a week, often churning them about to keep the eggs clean and supplied with fresh oxygen. They are typically more shy than usual when they are brooding, and have to forgo feeding while their mouths are full. After all the eggs are hatched, the tiny sh are released all at once, usually around sunset.
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