- Habitat
- Reef
- Max size
- 19 cm
- Depth
- 1-20 m
- Family
- Pomacentridae
The scissortail sergeant or striptailed damselfish is a large damselfish in the family Pomacentridae. It earns its name from the black-striped tail and sides, which are reminiscent of the insignia of a military Sergeant, being similar to those of the sergeant major damselfish. It grows to a length of about 16 centimetres (6.3 in). Scissortail sergeants live on coral reefs at depths of up to 15 metres (50 ft) in tropical reaches, often living in a group surrounding a single head of coral. They are found on reefs in the Indo-Pacific region, including the Red Sea.
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 Bengal Sergeant →
Both are pale with five black bars. Indo-pacific Sergeant has a yellow back and a plain tail. Scissortail Sergeant has no yellow, and a black stripe runs along each lobe of its tail, like the blades of open scissors.
See the Indo-pacific Sergeant →