LET’S talk about fish names. Do you know your fish? A series of informative articles illustrating some fish and their names in Papiamento, which the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries, known as Santa Rosa, wants to share and also gather information from the public. Read at the end of the article on how to do this.

Candelchi, Squirrelfish, Holocentrus adscensionis: Candelchi actually refers to the entire family of candelchi or, in other words, when we say candelchi, we mean various different species but do not distinguish them by species. In this picture, we are showing the most common one in our waters, which is commonly called in English, squirrelfish, or by its scientific name Holocentrus adscensionis. By candelchi, we in Aruba generally refer to all the different species of candelchi. They all look alike and it is indeed difficult to distinguish between them. The candelchi family is distinguished by the following characteristics: They are reddish in color and often show reddish stripes between the scales along the body. They have hard spines and are always armed. On the sister island of Curaçao, they are called “bari di clabo” (nail barrel), for this reason. In our waters, there are 7 to 8 types or species present that can be occasionally caught and seen. They can be distinguished by different marks like the color of the dorsal spines or markings on the body. In this article, we will not delve into that. In Aruba:

Candelchi are found on reefs or areas with structures in the water where they can hide. Although they prefer to search for food at night, they are active during the day as well. They are edible and delicious even dried with lime. They are particularly challenging to scale and for this reason, they are not one of the favorites among fishermen. They often live in groups.

Contact us: Santa Rosa intends to periodically release more information about fish names in Papiamento.

If you have information or comments to enhance knowledge or if you want specific information or topics for us to expand on, you can freely send them to [email protected]. If you are a fisherman and you want to share your catch of the fish in question, feel free to send it to us for consideration for publication.