- Habitat
- Reef
- Max size
- 17 cm
- Depth
- 1-6 m
- Family
- Pomacentridae
Abudefduf bengalensis, known as the Bengal sergeant or the narrow-banded sergeant major, is a species of damselfish in the family Pomacentridae. It is a marine species native to the tropical Indo-Pacific, where it ranges from the eastern Indian Ocean to Australia and Japan in the Pacific Ocean. Despite its wide range in the Indian Ocean, the Bengal sergeant is not known to occur in the Red Sea. Adults of this species are typically found in coral reef and lagoon environments at a depth of 1 to 6 m, where they typically occur singly or in small groups.
Adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Easily confused with
Side by side, with what tells them apart.
Both are white sergeants with black bars. Scissortail Sergeant has five broad bars and a dark band along each lobe of its forked tail, like open scissors. Bengal Sergeant has six or seven narrower bars, and large adults have a rounded tail with a pale edge instead of scissor-striped lobes.
See the Scissortail Sergeant →
Both are pale sergeants with black bars. Indo-pacific Sergeant has five broad bars and often a yellow back between the first and third. Bengal Sergeant has six or seven narrower bars, no yellow and no black spot on the tail base, and large adults have a rounded tail with a pale edge.
See the Indo-pacific Sergeant →