Fish
Blackspot Sergeant
Abudefduf sordidus
A stocky barred damselfish of KZN's shallow rocky shores, marked by a black spot on the upper tail base.
Also known as damselfish, sergeant, sordid sergeant
- Typical size
- Commonly 15-23 cm
- Habitat
- Shallow rocky shores, gullies and tidepools
- Depth
- Intertidal to about 5 m
The blackspot sergeant is a robust, oval damselfish, grey to olive with several darker vertical bars along the body and a distinctive black blotch on the top of the tail base. It is larger and more thickset than the slender sergeant-majors it shares the reef with.
Around South Africa it lives in the warm shallows of KwaZulu-Natal, favouring surge-swept rocky shores, gullies and tidepools where it feeds on algae and small invertebrates. Territorial and pugnacious, males guard nests of eggs laid on rock and will chivvy intruders, so divers snorkelling the shallows often see them darting among the boulders.