About Caesio lunaris Cuvier, 1830
Caesio lunaris Cuvier, 1830, commonly called the lunar fusilier, has a moderately deep, fusiform, laterally compressed body. It has small teeth on its jaws, vomer, and palatines. Its dorsal fin has 10 spines and 13 to 15 soft rays, most often 14, while its anal fin has 3 spines and 10 soft rays, rarely 11. Both the dorsal and anal fins are scaled. The pectoral fins hold 18 to 21 rays, typically 19 or 20. This species reaches a maximum total length of 40 cm (16 in). The overall body color is bluish, fading to a paler shade on the underside. In adult individuals, each lobe of the caudal fin is blue with a black tip. The pectoral fins have a black axil and black upper base; the remaining portions of the pectoral fins, along with the pelvic fins and anal fins, are white to pale blue, and the dorsal fin is bluish. Juveniles frequently have a yellow caudal fin and yellow markings on parts of the caudal peduncle. The lunar fusilier is distributed across the entire Indo-West Pacific. Its range runs along the eastern coast of Africa from the Red Sea to Sodwana Bay, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and extends east across the Indian Ocean (including the Persian Gulf) into the Pacific Ocean. In the Pacific, the range reaches east to the Marshall Islands and Fiji, north to southern Japan, and south to the waters off northwestern Australia and New Caledonia. This species occurs in inshore waters at depths down to 60 m (200 ft), and lives mostly near coral reefs, with a preference for lagoons and seaward reef slopes.
