Acanthurus triostegus
With a very wide distribution along the tropical coastlines of the Indo-Pacific, stretching from South Africa to California, the Convict Surgeonfish, or Convict Tang, is one of the most numerous and well-known of its family. Apart from the six obvious stripes on its body, its name comes from the sharp, scalpel-like spines on either side of the base of its tail that it keeps retracted until it needs to deploy them in self-defense.
Living along shallow reefs (usually less than 90m deep) and rocky shores, and even in harbours, the Convict Surgeonfish feed exclusively on algae they scrape from the rocks. Young fish are often seen in rock pools at low tide. They’re social fish, living in schools numbering from a few individuals to several thousand. They breed during full moon in late winter and spring. Most grow to only about 17cm in length, though some specimens may grow to as much as 27cm.
Convict Surgeonfish are often seen in home marine aquaria, but suffer high mortality if they cannot be provided with copious amounts of fresh seaweed. According to the IUCN this species is of least concern.
DeWetsWild 
You got some lovely pictures of these attractive fish in the rock pools. Sounds very much like such fish should be allowed to live free rather than captured for fish tanks where the mortality rate is so high.
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I couldn’t agree with you more, Carol.
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Die bandiet-doktervis … 😄 … ek’t lanklaas so ‘n oulike naam vir ‘n vis gehoor! Dankie vir die interessante inligting oor die vissie.
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Altyd n plesier om ons interessante dierelewe met almal te deel!
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What a name for a fish!
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Very apt description, don’t you agree, Hien?
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Mens kan nie die strepis miskyk nie! Wat ‘n gepasde naam.
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Ek stem geheel en al saam oor die naam, Aletta! Hulle lyk behoorlik soos n klomp bandiete vasgekeer in hul rots “tronk”!
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As I am ignorant about all fish species, this has been a particularly interesting post.
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Tank you very much, Anne. I don’t know nearly enough about our fish species either.
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Gotta love that name. 🙂
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A perfect fit!
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