Neopagetopsis ionah
| Neopagetopsis ionah | ||||||||||||
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Neopagetopsis ionah |
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Neopagetopsis | ||||||||||||
| Nybelin , 1947 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Neopagetopsis ionah | ||||||||||||
| Nybelin, 1947 |
Neopagetopsis ionah is a species of fish from the group of Antarctic fish (Notothenioidei) that occurs around Antarctica above the continental shelf . The species' northernmost records are from the South Orkney Islands and the South Shetland Islands .
features
Neopagetopsis ionah reaches a maximum length of 56 cm and a maximum weight of 1.1 kg. The fish species is elongated; the body height is 27 to 22.5% of the standard length . The snout is almost half the length of the head. The mouth reaches almost to the back edge of the eye. The teeth are in two rows in both jaws. The fish species has three lateral lines , one below the base of the dorsal fin, a second above the base of the anal fin, and a third on the middle of the caudal peduncle. The anal fin and the soft-rayed portion of the dorsal fin are long and symmetrically opposed. The short, hard-rayed section of the dorsal fin is high and rounded. Hard-rayed and soft-rayed sections of the dorsal fin are separated from each other by a deep incision. Neopagetopsis ionah is blackish to dark green-black in color. The first dorsal fin and the pelvic fins are black, the remaining fins are black or smoky grey. The belly is white. Juveniles may show a marbled pattern.
- Fin formula : Dorsal XIV-XV/32-55, Anal 29-32, Pectoral 24-25, Caudal 12
- Vertebrae: 60-61.
way of life
Neopagetopsis ionah lives at depths of 20 to 900 meters above the Antarctic continental shelf and feeds on smaller fish and krill . Young fish with a length of 10 to 15 cm are often caught as by-catch in krill fisheries, they only eat krill. Adult Neopagetopsis prey includes the crocodile icefish Chaenodraco wilsoni and Dacodraco hunteri and the Antarctic silverfish ( Pleuragramma antarctica ).
Like all crocodile icefish, Neopagetopsis ionah cares for its spawn. During a trip on the research vessel Polarstern in February 2021, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute found a huge breeding area for the species on the edge of the Filchner Ice Shelf in the south of the Antarctic Weddell Sea . The muddy sea floor covers an area of 240 square kilometers with about 60 million nests covered with brood-caring fish, the largest fish breeding area known to date. The round nests have a diameter of about 75 centimeters and are about 15 centimeters deep. Their center with the spawn is covered with small stones. The spawn contains between 1500 and 2500 eggs. The find supports the call for a marine sanctuary to be set up in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean.
supporting documents
- ^ a b c d Iwami, T. and K.-H. Kock, 1990. Channichthyidae. pp. 381-389. In O. Gon and PC Heemstra (eds.) Fishes of the Southern Ocean. JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology, Grahamstown, South Africa. 462 p.
- ↑ Neopagetopsis ionah on Fishbase.org
- ↑ Autun Purser, Laura Hehemann, Lilian Boehringer, Sandra Tipphauer, Mia Wege, Horst Bornemann, Santiago EA Pineda-Metz, Clara M. Flintrop, Florian Koch, Hartmut H. Hellmer, Patricia Burkhardt-Holm, Markus Janout, Ellen Werner, Barbara Glemser, Jenna Balaguer, Andreas Rogge, Moritz Holtappels, Frank Wenzhoefer: Icefish Metropole: Vast breeding colony discovered in the southern Weddell Sea. Current Biology (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.12.022
- ↑ World's largest fish breeding area discovered in Antarctica. Alfred-Wegener-Institut , January 13, 2022, retrieved January 15, 2022 .