Bermuda chub

Kyphosus sectatrix, the Bermuda chub, Pacific drummer, beaked chub, grey drummer, Pacific chub or white chub, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a sea chub from the family Kyphosidae. This species is found in tropical and subtropical coastal waters worldwide. It has had a confused taxonomic history dating back to Linnaeus's naming of the species in 1758.

Habitat

Kyphosus sectatrix forms schools, often mixed with other related species, on shallow reefs, frequently these are observed in the surge zone but it also occurs above algal reefs and in seagrass beds, over sandy and rocky substrates, and reef flats. Juveniles commonly shelter among floating rafts of Sargassum and this allows them to disperse over vast distances. This is an omnivorous species which feeds mostly on benthic algae and also on as well as on small crabs and molluscs. Off the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago in the southeast Atlantic it has been observed feeding on the faeces and vomit of spinner dolphins (Stenella spp) and this feeding off mammalian waste has been suggested to be simple behavioural change from feeding on plankton to picking out drifting particles of waste. When feeding on algae they appear to prefer brown algae.

Distribution

Kyphosus sectatrix has a circumglobal distribution and is found in the warmer areas of all the world's oceans. In the eastern Atlantic Ocean it has been recorded from St Helena and Ascension Island the Azores, the Canary Islands, it has been reported from the Algarve in Portugal and there are records from the Mediterranean. In the western Atlantic it is found off Bermuda, in the Sargasso Sea, in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. It has been recorded from the Trindade Islands of Brazil. It is thought likely that it occurs along the coast of northwest Africa and as far north as Portugal. In the Indian Ocean it has been recorded from Réunion and Indonesia but likely is far more widespread and probably occurs along the eastern African coast into the Red Sea and along the southern Asian coast. In the western Pacific it has been recorded from southern Japan to the Coral Sea and northern New Zealand and the Kermadec Islands, along the eastern coast of Australia from Heron Island, Queensland to Ulladulla, New South Wales and in the Tasman Sea from Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island. It extends across the Pacific through Polynesia to Hawaii and at least as far east as the Revillagigedo Islands.