Whitetail dascyllus
species of fish
Dascyllus aruanus, known commonly as the whitetail dascyllus or humbug damselfish among other vernacular names, is a species of marine fish in the family Pomacentridae.
Description
Whitetail dascyllus is up to 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in length but its common size is 6 centimetres (2.4 in) and is white with three black vertical bars.
It is morphologically identical to D. emamo, differing only in the sounds they make and their geographic distribution. It also appears very similar to the closely related D. abudafur. It may also be mistaken for D. melanurus, which has four black stripes instead of three. They have a small mouth, a flat spine, a black and white body with a large white spot between the eyes.
In the first year of life, the damselfish grows to be about 6 centimeters. However, it is fully grown by the end of its second year and remains at around 10 centimeters for another three to four years until it dies. The colors remain the same throughout their lives and serve multiple purposes. It has been hypothesized that the bold contrast of black and white attract fish of the same species, yet display as a sign of their host coral's toxicity to potential predators.
The public source identifies “Whitetail dascyllus” as species of fish. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Whitetail, dascyllus and species.
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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 May 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q529885. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Whitetail dascyllus” 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.