Galapagos Species Database
The Galapagos Species Database shares the information about the species from our Natural History Collections.
Acanthurus olivaceus
Pez Cirujano de Banda Naranja, Orangespot surgeonfish
Surgeonfish up to 35 cm long, with a distinctive orange stripe bordered in black starting behind the eye, a black mark on the caudal spine, a white patch on the caudal fin, and a bicolored body: grey in the front and black toward the rear (Bensted-Smith, W., Terán, F., Banks, S., & Keith, I., 2025)..
Domain
Eukaryota
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Actinopteri
Order
Acanthuriformes
Family
Acanthuridae
Genus
Acanthurus
Species
olivaceus
Taxon category: Accepted
Syn.: Acanthurus chrysosoma Bleeker, 1857; Acanthurus eparai Lesson, 1831; Acanthurus eparei Lesson, 1831; Acanthurus erythromelas Swainson, 1839; Acanthurus humeralis Valenciennes, 1835; Acanthurus olicaceous Bloch & Schneider, 1801; Ctenodon erythromelas (Swainson, 1839); Harpurus paroticus Forster, 1844; Hepatus chrysosoma (Bleeker, 1857); Hepatus olivaceus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801); Rhombotides olivaceus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801); Rhombotides Xanthosoma Bleeker, 1865; Teuthis olivaceus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) (Ahyong, S et al., 2025)
Origin: Native
Distribution: Widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific, from Socotra and the western Indian Ocean to Japan, Hawaii, Australia, and the Line Islands in the Central Pacific. In the Galápagos Islands, it has been recorded at Marchena Island (Bensted-Smith, W., Terán, F., Banks, S., & Keith, I., 2025).
- Ahyong, S Et. al. (2025) World Register of Marine Species. Available from https://www.marinespecies.org at VLIZ. doi:10.14284/170
- Bensted-Smith W Terán F, Banks S, Keith I (2025) New photographic records of eight marine fishes from the Galápagos Islands, including three first records for the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Check List 21 (2): 485–505. https://doi.org/10.15560/21.2.485
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This page should be cited as follows:
"Galapagos Species Database, Acanthurus olivaceus", dataZone. Charles Darwin Foundation, https://datazone.darwinfoundation.org/en/checklist/?species=25583. Accessed 6 November 2026.