Scientific Name
Sargocentron violaceum
Common Name
Violet squirrelfish
Biology
Dorsal
spines
(total): 11;
Dorsal
soft rays
(total): 12-15;
Anal
spines: 4;
Anal
soft rays: 9. Body color brownish to purplish red; head primarily red; upper part of opercular membrane blackish; each scale with vertical silvery white line. Four to five oblique scale rows on cheek; body depth 2.3-2.7 in SL; head length (HL) 2.4-2.85 in SL; snout length 3.75-4.35 in HL; maxilla extending posteriorly from below front of pupil to below center of the eye, upper jaw length 2.7-2.85 in HL; premaxillary groove about a vertical at front edge of orbit; anterior end of nasal bone with 2 diverging spines; medial margin of nasal bone spineless (however, a Seychelles specimen 20.6 cm has one small spinule on the edge); 1-3 spinules on anterior and posterior margins of nasal fossa; suborbital bones' upper edge smooth anteriorly, becoming slightly serrate posteriorly (serrae as recumbent spinules); adults' preopercular spines long, 2.85-3.8 in HL (at least equal to orbit diameter). 2