Atlantic Spadefish
Chaetodipterus faber
Golden Spadefish
Platax boersii
About
The golden spadefish is a deep-bodied, disc-shaped fish found on reefs across the Indo-West Pacific. Adults carry a warm golden-yellow sheen that sets them apart from other batfish.
How to tell it apart
Adults closely resemble the orbicular batfish. Look for the warmer golden-yellow tone of the golden spadefish, rather than the plainer silver of its lookalike.
Appearance
Adults have a rounded head and a tall, flattened, disc-shaped body in yellowish-silver, scattered with small dark spots. A dark bar crosses each eye, and another sits just behind the head. The tail, pectoral, anal and dorsal fins are yellowish green, with black edges on the tail and anal fin, and black pelvic fins. Juveniles look very different: pale silvery-brown with the same two head bars, but with a blackish rear third of the body and long, trailing dorsal and anal fins.
Habitat
Found on or near reefs in Indonesia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea, from about 10 to 60 metres deep. Solitary fish tend to stay close to shore, while schools gather along steep drop-offs with tall coral structures.
Did you know?
The golden spadefish's species name honours Major W. J. A. W. Boers, a Dutch army officer who collected the first known specimen and gave it to the scientist Pieter Bleeker, who described the species in 1853.
Log it in Into the Blue
Describe what you saw and we name it, then keep every species you find in your Oceandex.
