The Goldband fusilier, Pterocaesio chrysozona is a fusilier

Caesionidae

The fusilier fishes are a family, Caesionidae, of fishes in the order Perciformes. They are related to the snappers, but adapted for feeding on plankton, rather than on larger prey.They are cylindrical, streamlined fishes, of up to in length...

 of the genus Pterocaesio. It is also known as the Blacktipped fusilier. This is a tropical reef forage fish

Forage fish

Forage fish, also called prey fish or bait fish, are small fish which are preyed on by larger predators for food. Predators include other larger fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Typical ocean forage fish feed near the base of the food chain on plankton, often by filter feeding...

 found between latitudes 30°N and 27°S and longitudes 40°E to 157°E. It is widespread around reefs in the Red Sea

Red Sea

The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...

, the west Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

, and along east Africa, west India, and east Australia.

Goldband fusiliers grow to 21 cm. They are a non-migratory

Fish migration

Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousands of kilometres...

 fish, found during the day moving in schools

Shoaling and schooling

In biology, any group of fish that stay together for social reasons are said to be shoaling , and if, in addition, the group is swimming in the same direction in a coordinated manner, they are said to be schooling . In common usage, the terms are sometimes used rather loosely...

 at depths between 5 and 35 metres among coral reef

Coral reef

Coral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups. The polyps...

s, seagrass

Seagrass

Seagrasses are flowering plants from one of four plant families , all in the order Alismatales , which grow in marine, fully saline environments.-Ecology:...

, along outer reef slopes and around pinnacles in deep lagoons. At night they shelter inside the reef

Coral reef

Coral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups. The polyps...

. They are not suitable for home aquaria, since they require unrestricted space.

They have a yellow stripe on each side, parallel to and one or two scales below the lateral line

Lateral line

The lateral line is a sense organ in aquatic organisms , used to detect movement and vibration in the surrounding water. Lateral lines are usually visible as faint lines running lengthwise down each side, from the vicinity of the gill covers to the base of the tail...

. Their back (dorsal area) is light blue to brown and their belly (ventral area) is white to pink.

They have high resilience, with a minimum population doubling time under 15 months. They are filter feeder

Filter feeder

Filter feeders are animals that feed by straining suspended matter and food particles from water, typically by passing the water over a specialized filtering structure. Some animals that use this method of feeding are clams, krill, sponges, baleen whales, and many fish and some sharks. Some birds,...

s, feeding midwater on aggregations of zooplankton

Zooplankton

Zooplankton are heterotrophic plankton. Plankton are organisms drifting in oceans, seas, and bodies of fresh water. The word "zooplankton" is derived from the Greek zoon , meaning "animal", and , meaning "wanderer" or "drifter"...

. In turn, they are preyed on by coral trout

Coral trout

The coral trout, leopard coral grouper, or leopard coral trout is a species of fish in the Serranidae family. Native to the western Pacific Ocean, its natural habitat includes open seas and coral reefs...

. Oviparous

Oviparity

Oviparous animals are animals that lay eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, reptiles, all birds, the monotremes, and most insects, some molluscs and arachnids....

, they lay many small eggs

Egg (biology)

An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...

 which float pelagically

Pelagic zone

Any water in a sea or lake that is not close to the bottom or near to the shore can be said to be in the pelagic zone. The word pelagic comes from the Greek πέλαγος or pélagos, which means "open sea". The pelagic zone can be thought of in terms of an imaginary cylinder or water column that goes...

 in the water.

Goldband fusilier play a minor role in commercial fisheries. In the Philippines they are sometimes caught and marketed fresh using traps and drive-in nets. In the Laccadives, the Maldives

Fishing industry in the Maldives

The fishing industry in the Maldives is the island's second main industry. According to national tradition in the words of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, "Fishing is the lifeblood of our nation, it is inborn. From the soil on which we live, to the sea around us, it remains an integral part...

 and the West Pacific, they are used as baitfish for the pole and line tuna fisheries.