Red Sea Fueselier

Caesio suevica

Occurring in

Indian Ocean
Red Sea

2-25m

DayAndNightActive

not endangered

This little rascal is the opposite of shy — he deliberately swims right in front of your mask. This silver arrow can be recognized by its streamlined body and its deeply forked tail fin, whose ends are spotted black and white. His mouth may be small, but he can open it wide when he wants to eat bigger bites.

Habitat

Coral reef

Special features

This little rascal is the opposite of shy — he deliberately swims right in front of your mask.

Red Sea fusilier_caesio_suevica_divedict_divedict_bio_lexicon_lexicon1

Appearance

This silver arrow can be recognized by its streamlined body and its deeply forked tail fin, whose ends are spotted black and white. His mouth may be small, but he can open it wide when he wants to eat bigger bites.

Natural enemies

Predatory fish

Dangerous/Venomous

The Red Sea fusilier is neither dangerous nor venomous.

Sketch

Caesio suevica_rotes_meer_red_sea_tauchen_diving_divedict_fis

1. Dark stripe

2. Fork-like tail fin

Pro tips

Fueseliers are generally persistent, skilled swimmers. They roam across reefs in open water in individualized schools. There they eat large portions of plankton.
When they go to lagoons or outer reefs, they like to stop at “cleaning stations” where smaller fish scrub their mouths without being eaten.

At night, they like to retreat into crevices and temporarily take on a darker base color for better camouflage.

These rascals are not at all afraid of us divers, it can happen that they intentionally swim right in front of us, masks or bump right into us.

Red Sea fusilier_caesio_suevica_divedict_divedict_bio_lexicon_lexicon

Text: Carolina Leiter

Pic: Felician Hosp

Illustration: Dive Dict