Saltcorner
By Bob Goemans
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Aspidontus

Aspidontus taeniatus

Quoy & Gaimard, 1834

False Cleanerfish

Not Reef Tank Suitable

Not Suitable for Fish-Only Tank

Range: Indo-West Pacific Ocean: Cocos-Keeling Islands and Christmas Island in the eastern Indian Ocean to the Line, Marquesas, and Tuamotu Islands, north to Southern Japan, and south to New South Wales and throughout Micronesia.

Size: 4 inches (10 cm)

Natural Environment: Inhabits lagoons, subtidal reef flats and outer reef slopes and usually found at depths between 3 – 85 feet (1 – 25 m) where it feeds on the scales and fins of other fishes.

General Husbandry: Hopefully, not collected for the trade.

Taxonomy:

    Order: Perciformes

    Suborder: Blennioidei

    Family: Blenniidae

    Genus: Aspidontus

FYI: Feeds on the skin of other fishes. An amazing lookalike of the cleaner Wrasse Labroides dimidatus. Not something you want in your aquarium!

Better left in the wild.

 Aspidontus taeniatus   (False Cleanerfish )
Photo © John Randall
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