Elegant Unicornfish

The elegant unicornfish is one of the most colourful surgeonfish on Indo-Pacific reefs, its grey body set off by a yellow eye-bar, an orange-and-white tail patch, and finely trimmed fins.

Also known as: indian orange-spine unicornfish, indian orange-spine unicorn, orange-spine unicorn, orangespine unicornfish, smoothheaded unicornfish

This species belongs to the unicornfish group, several of which grow a bony horn or bump on the forehead. The elegant unicornfish has no such horn - a smooth forehead is the simplest way to tell it apart from its horned relatives.

This fish has a mostly grey body. A yellow bar crosses in front of the eyes, separating a darker snout from the paler grey head. The dorsal fin is yellow with a thin blue edge and a black band, while the anal and pelvic fins are dark brown. At the base of the tail, a pair of forward-pointing bony plates sit inside patches of vivid orange separated by white. The tail fin itself is yellowish with black upper and lower edges and a black band near the tip. Males grow longer trailing filaments from the corners of the tail fin than females.

The elegant unicornfish is found from the Red Sea south along the East African coast to South Africa, and east across the Indian Ocean as far as Indonesia. It keeps to reef flats and rocky bottoms in coastal and inshore waters, gathering in small groups close to shore and in larger schools farther offshore, typically between 5 and 30 metres deep.

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  Bignose unicornfish

  Naso vlamingii

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  Bluespine unicornfish

  Naso unicornis

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  Humpback unicornfish

  Naso brachycentron

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  Orangespine unicornfish

  Naso lituratus

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  Sleek unicornfish

  Naso hexacanthus

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  Spotted unicornfish

  Naso brevirostris