Pacific spade fish
| Pacific spade fish | ||||||||||||
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Pacific spade fish ( Chaetodipterus zonatus ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Chaetodipterus zonatus | ||||||||||||
| ( Girard , 1858) |
The Pacific spade fish ( Chaetodipterus zonatus ) occurs in the eastern Pacific from the coast of southern California to Peru in shallow water to depths of 45 meters.
features
The high-backed, disc-shaped and laterally strongly flattened fish reach a maximum length of 65 centimeters, but the average length of adults is 25 cm. Their head is short and has a slightly concave profile. The mouth is small, terminal and does not extend over the front edge of the eye. They are of a silvery basic color, the sides are patterned by wide, vertical stripes, which are blackish in juvenile fish with lengths of less than 8 cm and fade with increasing size. The Branchiostegalmembranen have grown together on the isthmus below the gill region. The spines of the dorsal fin are well developed.
Way of life
Pacific spade fish live in small groups near the coast, in shallow waters and in open water over sandy bottoms and coral reefs . The species can often be found near oil rigs, shipwrecks or jetties. It feeds mainly on Bentische invertebrates.
literature
- William N. Eschmeyer, Earl S. Herald, Howard Hamann: A field guide to Pacific Coast Fishes of North America. From the Gulf of Alaska to Baja California (Peterson Field Guides; 28). Houghton Mifflin, Boston, Mass. 1983, ISBN 0-395-33188-9 .
Web links
- Pacific spade fish on Fishbase.org (English)
- Chaetodipterus zonatus inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013.2. Posted by: Smith-Vaniz, B, Robertson, R., Collette, B., Dominici-Arosemena, A., Molina, H., Salas, E. & Guzman-Mora, AG, 2008. Retrieved November 30, 2013 .