---
title: Elegant Unicornfish (Naso elegans)
scientific_name: Naso elegans
common_name: Elegant Unicornfish
taxon: Unicornfishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-25T22:31:48.306Z
updated: 2026-08-13T22:27:17.062Z
tags: Elegant Unicornfish, Naso elegans, Unicornfishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/unicornfishes/elegant-unicornfish
---

# Elegant Unicornfish (*Naso elegans*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Unicornfishes (*Nasinae*)
- **Size:** up to 45 cm
- **Depth:** 5-40 m
- **Diet:** Herbivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Coral-rich reef and slopes with algal turf
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- no horn at all, despite the name
- bright orange dorsal fin and orange lips
- two orange-ringed blades on each side of the tail base
- black mask across the face, yellow above the eye
- length up to 45 cm

A unicornfish with no horn: this species never grows one, and its name comes from the group rather than from the animal. What it does have is the best face on the reef - a black mask, yellow above the eye, orange lips, and a tall orange dorsal fin it raises when it is annoyed.

It belongs to this sea and the western Indian Ocean, and it does not occur in the Pacific, where an almost identical fish replaces it. The two were treated as one species for a long time; the split matters here because ours is the orange one.

The blades on the tail base are ringed in orange and permanently erect, and the warning is deliberate - a fish carrying fixed knives advertises them.

It grazes leafy brown algae, working the same patches daily, often in pairs. Divers see it constantly and photograph it badly, because it keeps turning side-on and moving off just as the camera comes up.

## Also known as

- **English:** Elegant Unicornfish, Indian Orange-spine Unicornfish, Indian orange-spine Unicorn
- **Hebrew:** קרנפון ססגוני
- **French:** Nason à éperons orange de l'océan Indien, Nasique à Eperons Oranges, Nasique à éperons oranges
- **Italian:** Pesce unicorno spine arancioni occidentale, Pesce unicorno arancione occidentale, Pesce unicorno elegante occidentale
- **German:** Indischer Gelbklingen-Nasendoktor, Gelbklingen-Nashornfisch
- **Spanish:** Pez Unicornio Elegante
- **Portuguese:** Rufia Espigão Laranja, Peixe-unicórnio-elegante
- **Czech:** bodlok půvabný
- **Russian:** Изящная рыба-носорог
- **AF:** Oranje stekel-eenhoringvis
- **CA:** Peix unicorn d'espina taronja indi

## Scientific synonyms

- *Aspisurus elegans* Rüppell, 1829

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/unicornfishes/elegant-unicornfish)*
*Updated: August 13, 2026*