Big head snapper

Big head snapper
Bigeye snapper ( Monotaxis grandoculis ), young animal
Systematics
Sub-cohort : Neoteleostei Acanthomorphata Spinefish (Acanthopterygii) Perch relatives (Percomorphaceae) Order : Spariformes Family : Big head snapper
Scientific name
Lethrinidae
Bonaparte , 1838

The big head snapper (Lethrinidae) are a family of perch relatives . The fish are often called "street sweepers", which comes from an unfortunate translation of the English term "scavenger" in Grzimek's animal life . In English, however, "scavengers" was meant.

Big-head snapper differ from the snapper (Lutjanidae) by the large head with a steeper profile, the large eyes, the teeth and the anatomy of the gill cover.

The animals live in tropical regions of the Indo-Pacific , only Lethrinus atlanticus lives in the Atlantic off the coast of West Africa.

During the day individual animals stay under overhangs such as table corals; Schools prefer the open water on reef slopes. The bigeye snapper Monotaxis grandoculis and the Mozambique bigeye snapper Wattsia mossambica also live at greater depths.

Reproduction

Like many marine perch relatives, the big head snapper are hermaphrodites (protogynous hermaphrodites), which are first female, later male.

Most species spawn in shoals in open water. Eggs and larvae are pelagic, are distributed with the ocean currents and ensure that the fish spread widely.

Systematics

The large-headed snapper, together with the sea ​​bream (Sparidae) and the pseudo- snappers (Nemipteridae), form a group of related "sparoid" families, which some scientists regarded as the superfamily (Sparoidea) of the Percoidei , but later as a separate order (Spariformes) from the perch-like ( Perciformes) was spun off. The Lethrinidae are the sister group of the sea bream.

There are two subfamilies, five genera and about 45 species . Most of the species belong to the genus Lethrinus , some to the genus Gymnocranius , two to monotaxis , while Gnathodentex and Wattsia only have one species each.

Black- spot big-head snapper ( Lethrinus harak )

Lethrinus microdon , night color

Gold-streaked big-head snapper ( Lethrinus obsoletus )

Gnathodentex aureolineatus

• Subfamily Lethrininae
  • Genus Lethrinus Cuvier , 1829
    • Lethrinus amboinensis Bleeker , 1854 .
    • Lethrinus atkinsoni Seale, 1910 .
    • Lethrinus atlanticus Valenciennes , 1830 .
    • Lethrinus borbonicus Valenciennes, 1830 .
    • Lethrinus conchyliatus (Smith, 1959) .
    • Lethrinus crocineus Smith, 1959 .
    • Lethrinus enigmaticus Smith, 1959 .
    • Lethrinus erythracanthus Valenciennes, 1830 .
    • Lethrinus erythropterus Valenciennes, 1830 .
    • Lethrinus genivittatus Valenciennes, 1830 .
    • Lethrinus haematopterus Temminck & Schlegel , 1844 .
    • Black- spot big-head snapper ( Lethrinus harak ) ( Forsskål , 1775) .
    • Lethrinus laticaudis Alleyne & Macleay, 1877 .
    • Lethrinus lentjan ( Lacépède , 1802) .
    • Lethrinus mahsena (Forsskål, 1775) .
    • Lethrinus microdon (Bleeker, 1851) .
    • Lethrinus miniatus (Forster, 1801) .
    • Lethrinus nebulosus (Forsskål, 1775) .
    • Gold-streaked big-head snapper ( Lethrinus obsoletus ) (Forsskål, 1775) .
    • Lethrinus olivaceus Valenciennes, 1830 .
    • Lethrinus ornatus Valenciennes, 1830 .
    • Lethrinus punctulatus Macleay, 1878 .
    • Lethrinus ravus Carpenter & Randall, 2003 .
    • Lethrinus reticulatus Valenciennes, 1830 .
    • Lethrinus rubrioperculatus Sato, 1978 .
    • Lethrinus semicinctus Valenciennes, 1830 .
    • Lethrinus variegatus Valenciennes, 1830 .
    • Lethrinus xanthochilus Klunzinger, 1870 .
• Subfamily Monotaxinae
  • Genus Gnathodentex Bleeker , 1873
    • Gnathodentex aureolineatus (Lacépède, 1802) .
  • Genus Gymnocranius Klunzinger, 1870
    • Gymnocranius audleyi Ogilby , 1916 .
    • Gymnocranius elongatus Senta, 1973 .
    • Gymnocranius euanus ( Günther , 1879) .
    • Gymnocranius frenatus Bleeker, 1873 .
    • Gymnocranius grandoculis (Valenciennes, 1830) .
    • Gymnocranius griseus ( Temminck & Schlegel , 1843) .
    • Gymnocranius microdon (Bleeker, 1851) .
    • Gymnocranius obesus Chen et al., 2017 .
  • Genus Monotaxis Bennett, 1830
    • Bigeye snapper ( Monotaxis grandoculis ) (Valenciennes, 1830) .
    • Monotaxis heterodon (Bleeker, 1854)
  • Genus Wattsia Chan & Chilvers, 1974
    • Wattsia mossambica (Smith, 1957)

literature

• Kent E. Carpenter, Gerald R. Allen (Eds.): Emperor fishes and large-eye breams of the world (Family Lethrinidae). An annotated and illustrated catalog of lethrinid species known to date. FAO Species Catalog Vol.9., Rome 1989. ( Complete edition )
• Joseph S. Nelson : Fishes of the World. John Wiley & Sons, 2006, ISBN 0-471-25031-7 .
• Hans A. Baensch / Robert A. Patzner: Mergus Sea Water Atlas Volume 7 Perciformes (Perch-like) , Mergus Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-88244-107-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wei-Jen Chen, Philippe Borsa (2020): Diversity, phylogeny, and historical biogeography of large-eye seabreams (Teleostei: Lethrinidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 106902 June 2020, doi: 10.1016 / j.ympev.2020.106902

Web links

Commons : Big Head Snapper  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

• Big Head Snapper on Fishbase.org (English)