Cymatogaster aggregata
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Cymatogaster aggregata |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
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Cymatogaster aggregata is a fish from the surf perchfamily(Embiotocidae). It lives on the rocky coasts and the kelp forests of the northeastern Pacific from Wrangell Island on the coast of southern Alaska to Bahia San Quintin in northern Baja California . The fish live mainly in calm, shallow water, in seagrass meadows, bays and harbors and also swim in brackish and fresh water. They live in small schools. In its area of distribution, Cymatogaster aggregata is the most common surf perch.
features
The fish are no more than 18 to 20 cm long, but usually only reach 10 to 13 cm. You will be 9 years old. They are silver-colored, the back greenish or dark. There are eight rows of scales with small black dots on the sides. Especially in females, the stripes are often interrupted by three light yellow vertical stripes. The head is concave above the eye. There is often a small, dark spot on both sides of the head, above the upper lip. Male animals are darker during summer, the yellow vertical stripes only appear in winter. The lateral line organ is complete and slightly arched upwards. Differs from other surf perch in that it has large scales and three fin spines in the anal fin. The paired fins are colorless, the anal fin usually too, but sometimes show a yellow spot in front, the dorsal and caudal fins are dark.
Way of life
During the breeding season, the mating organs (surf perch have internal fertilization) of the males are clearly visible on both sides of the anal fin. Mating takes place mainly in summer, when the males are often completely black. The fry are born in the following spring or summer. Females 15 cm in length can give birth to 20 fry, which are approximately 3.8 cm long at birth.
Cymatogaster aggregata feeds on small crustaceans , molluscs and algae, the larvae and juveniles of copepods .
literature
- Eschmeyer, Herald, Hamann: Pacific Coast Fishes . Peterson Field Guides, ISBN 0-395-33188-9
Web links
- Cymatogaster aggregata on Fishbase.org (English)
- Cymatogaster aggregata in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2013.2. Posted by: NatureServe, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2014.