This beautiful Hawaiian reef fish is a one of a kind as it is the only member of the Zanclidae family on our coral reefs! It is often mistaken for the common butterfly fish but it is actually one of the oldest known Hawaiian fish with fossil records dating back over 50 million years.
This beautiful Hawaiian reef fish is a one of a kind as it is the only member of the Zanclidae family on our coral reefs! It is often mistaken for the common butterfly fish but it is actually one of the oldest known Hawaiian fish with fossil records dating back over 50 million years.
The Moorish Idol’s Hawaiian name means to zigzag or angle through the reef and that is exactly what it does as it moves by using its pectoral (side) fins and not it tail fin. They are very elegant to watch with their sickle-shaped dorsal fin that flows backwards as they dance about the coral reef.
Kihikihi is easy to recognize by it long striped snout and tiny mouth at the end. It uses its elongated mouth to reach in between the sharp corals to feed on tiny sponges that are hidden in the reef. It also feeds in dark caves where different sponges grow and may also feed on other fish’s eggs from time to time.
It is not easy to tell the males from the females and they live in very shallow water including in bays and under piers where they constantly pick at the tiny sponges growing in the dark.
For many years I always wondered why I never saw a baby Moorish Idol while diving. Only the usual adult pair or sometimes a group of five or six feeding together in a dark cave. It turns out that the baby kihikihi are transparent and swim in the open ocean until they change into their adult colors and settle down on the reef.
These fish are graceful to watch and were often collected to be sold into the salt water aquarium trade but they do not do well in captivity because of their selective diet. Very few predators on the reef even try to eat them so they may have a bad taste from eating toxic sponges.
You can see kihikihi in action in my video The Worlds Guide to Hawaiian Reef Fish up on my web at www.underwater2web.com and also have your kids snorkel with the Moorish Idols in person in our non profit coral reef kids camp at www.reefguardianshawaii.org. You can also follow my daily marine science Instagram post at terry.lilley
Aloha from under the waves.
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Terry Lilley, marine biologist, Hanalei, underwater2web.com, www.gofundme.com/5urrm4zw, all photographs © 2016 Terry Lilly
