Spotted snipe knife fish
| Spotted snipe knife fish | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Spotted snipe knifefish ( Aeoliscus punctulatus ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Aeoliscus punctulatus | ||||||||||||
| ( Bianconi , 1855). |
The spotted snipe knife fish ( Aeoliscus punctulatus ) is a small marine fish from the group of pipefish species . It occurs in the Red Sea and in the western Indian Ocean along the East African coast to Algoa Bay in South Africa near Port Elizabeth .
features
The spotted snipe knife fish can reach a maximum length of 15 centimeters. Its body is elongated with a sharp edge on the abdomen. The head ends in a long, tubular mouth. The first dorsal fin sits at the end of the body. It is supported by three fin spines. As a member of the genus Aeoliscus , the spotted snipe knife fish can bend the first dorsal fin spine with the help of a joint in the center of the spine. The second dorsal fin is supported by ten to eleven soft rays. Like the caudal fin, it is shifted towards the abdomen. The anal fin has 12 to 13 soft rays. The color of the spotted snipe knife fish is light with a greenish tinge. It differs from the Pacific striped snipe fish ( Aeoliscus strigatus ) primarily in the small black dots that are scattered over the body at a greater distance.
Way of life
The spotted snipe knife fish lives in small or large schools of up to 150 individual animals. He swims close to each other in a vertical position, with his head down and only takes a "normal", horizontal swimming position for a short time when fleeing. To protect them from predators, the fish stand between the long spines of diadem sea urchins or between branched hard corals . Snipe knifefish feed on small, planktonic crustaceans .
literature
- Hans A. Baensch , Robert A. Patzner: Mergus Sea Water Atlas Volume 6. Non-Perciformes (Non-Perciformes) , Mergus-Verlag, Melle 1998, ISBN 3-88244-116-X
- Rudie H. Kuiter : Seahorses, pipefish, shredded fish and their relatives . Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2001 ISBN 3-8001-3244-3
Web links
- Spotted snipe knife fish on Fishbase.org (English)