Interesting that this comes up, as the discussion amongst taxonomists now is that there are prolly only 4 true species of the genus
Signatus and that the entire taxonomy on this genus is most likely going to be redone AGAIN in the near future.
Curently there are two closely related fishes that match this description and photo,
Signatus doliatus and
S. virgatus. Both occur primarily in the Western Pacific, with
S. doliatus occupying the regions of the Indonesian Seas east of Sulawasi and
S. virgatus occupying the areas West and north to the Sea of Japan.
Distinguishiong differences are that
S. doliatus is usually identified by the presence of distinctive iridescent blue lines over the entire length and depth of it's body, whereas the
S. virgatus usually is only half lined, with a full yellow to white abdomen from the pectoral area ventrally and the caudal peduncle without strips/lines. Occasionally confused with the Masked Rabbitfish,
Amphacanthus puellus, but it is distinguished by the presence of only one facial plane band rather than two as with the previous two fishes.
So much potential for interbred variants that even this description may not allow 100% positive ID.
HTH, and btw Geoff, Target now has Starbuck's for $6 a bag...
amazing how much more alert I feel in the evening compared to 7am...
