Acanthurus dussumieri
species of fish

Acanthurus dussumieri, commonly known as Dussumier's surgeonfish, the eye-stripe surgeonfish or the ornate surgeonfish, is a ray-finned fish from the Indo-Pacific. It occasionally makes its way into the aquarium trade. It grows to a maximum length of 54 cm (21 in) but 35 cm (14 in) is a more usual size.
The specific name honours the French explorer and trader Jean-Jacques Dussumier (1792-1883).
Description
Acanthurus dussumieri is a deep-bodied, laterally-compressed oval fish with a maximum length of 54 cm (21 in). The head is small, with slightly prominent eyes, a small beak-like mouth and inflated, pale lips. The body is smooth, being covered with small scales, but like other surgeon-fish, it has a pair of scalpel-like, modified scales on the caudal peduncle; these can either be folded flat or raised in defence. Both dorsal and anal fins are long, and the pectoral fins are used for locomotion and balance. The throat is blue, and the rest of the head has a dense network of blue or grey-blue lines, which are wider than the fine grey-blue, wavy, longitudinal lines on the pale brownish body. There is a broad orange bar above the eyes and a narrow orange band borders the base of the dorsal fin.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Acanthurus dussumieri” is species of fish. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Acanthurus, dussumieri and species, not as a finished interpretation.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q547028. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1792 and 1883.
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This entry incorporates text from “Acanthurus dussumieri” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.