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Señorita
ON EXHIBIT
At the Aquarium
Natural History
Loose schools of señoritas swarm in kelp forests and over reefs anywhere from near the bottom of the water to near the top. In the aquarium’s kelp forest exhibits, look for little cigar-shaped orange fish with large black spots on their tails. Señoritas sport large scales, small mouths and protruding teeth that are ideal for picking bryozoans and hydroids from algae.
Conservation
Commercial fishermen don’t target señoritas and anglers consider them bait-stealing nuisances. Señoritas, as well as other animals, depend on healthy kelp forests for food and shelter. Unfortunately, some kelp forests are in danger. In the past 20 years, three-quarters of these underwater forests have disappeared from Channel Islands National Park. Overfishing of sheepheads, lobsters and red urchins removed predators of purple sea urchins. Without predators, the population of purple sea urchins increased rapidly to hoards of grazers that ate enough kelp to devastate nearly all the forests. To save the kelp forests, California agencies established no-fishing zones, called marine reserves, and limited fishing areas around the Channel Islands. If the success of other reserves is repeated, Channel Island National Park kelp forests should flourish again.
Cool Facts
Señoritas feed during the day. At night they search for a sandy bottom where they bury in the sand with only their heads exposed. When threatened by predators in the daytime, señoritas dart to the seafloor and hide by burrowing in the bottom sediment. Brandt’s cormorants and California sea lions prey on señoritas.
Señoritas, unlike most wrasses, don’t change sex.
Señoritas are known as “cleaner” fish. They pick external parasites and copepods from the skin of other fishes. If a señorita cleans a fish that is drifting close by, other fishes appear to be cleaned also, but señoritas aren’t full-time cleaners. They clean until they lose interest and then swim away, leaving behind disappointed fishes.
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Animal Facts
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ON EXHIBIT
- Scientific Name:
Oxyjulis californica
- Habitat:
Kelp Forest
- Animal Type:
Fishes
- Diet:
small invertebrates: hydroids, bryozoans, amphipods, parasitic copepods, isopods
- Size:
to 10 inches (25 cm)
- Range:
in kelp forests and reefs from five to 240 feet (1.5 m-76 m); from Salt Point, Sonoma California to central Baja California
- Relatives:
sheephead, rock wrasses, parrotfish; Family: Labridae (wrasses)
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