Yellowfin bass

The yellowfin bass is a small, rosy deep-reef fish of the western Atlantic, with yellow fins and striking blue eyes, that belongs to the fairy basslets and has nothing to do with the freshwater yellow bass.

It lives in small to large schools around Oculina corals, large boulders and other rocky or coral bottoms on deep reefs, at about 55 to 440m. The range runs from Nova Scotia through Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean to northeastern Brazil. Most of what is known about it comes from submersibles.

Appearance

The body is darker on top and paler underneath, with two bright yellow stripes on the head, one of them running along the lower head towards the pelvic fins. All the fins are yellow apart from the clear pectorals, and the rounded tail lobes are edged in reddish purple.

Behaviour

Bright lights make it bolt. As soon as a submersible arrives with its lamps on, the school breaks up and the fish dive into crevices and burrows, which is why counts made under natural light are the more reliable ones.

Like other anthias, it is thought to live in structured social groups of one dominant male and around 10 to 12 females.

Feeding

It lives almost entirely on zooplankton picked from the water column.

Life cycle

As in other anthias, every fish starts out female. When the male is lost, the largest female in the group changes sex and takes his place, a shift that alters her size, her shape and her internal anatomy.

Threats

The IUCN Red List rates the species as Least Concern, so it faces no immediate risk of extinction.