New Zealand topknot: Difference between revisions

Topknot, Notoclinops fenestratus, is a Triplefin of the genus Notoclinops, found around the North Island of New Zealand in rock pools and from low water to depths of about 5 metres, in reef areas of broken rock and brown seaweed. It is not often seen but is far more common than thought due to its superb camouflage. Its length is between 4 and 10 centimetres, and it is most unusual among the Triplefins in having a laterally compressed body with a high first dorsal fin which gives it its name.

The colouring of the Topknot is variable but is usually red-brown with a series of darker brown oblique stripes and some mottling of green, orange, and brown. All the fins have transparent patches alternating with bars of red-brown.

They live amongst the swaying fronds of brown kelp. When they move between kelp patches they mimic the movement of a detached leaf of kelp by swimming vertically using only their pectoral fins.

Their food is small kelp-living crustaceans, especially amphipods and isopods.

• Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Notoclinops fenestratus". FishBase. ........... .... version.
• Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand, (William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1982) ISBN 0-00-216987-8