Slender winged steed
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Slender winged steed ( Pegasus volitans ) |
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| Pegasus volitans | ||||||||||||
| Linnaeus , 1758 |
The slender winged steed ( Pegasus volitans ) is a small marine fish that is widespread in the tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific .
features
The slim winged steed is a maximum of 18 centimeters long. The maximum length is probably only reached in cooler regions, fish in tropical areas stay at lengths of no more than 14 centimeters. It is olive or light to dark brown in color, the underside is lighter. The body is elongated, on the dorsal side without tubercles or deep pits and clearly set off from the caudal stalk. It is armored by four pairs of dorsolateral (on the sides of the back) and five pairs of ventrolateral (on the sides of the abdomen) bone plates. The caudal fin stalk is surrounded by twelve bony rings, the first nine of which can move against each other, while the last three have grown together. The last ring of bone on the tail fin stalk bears a pair of backward-pointing spines. The snout is remarkably long and spade-shaped at the end. The edge of the eye sockets is not scaly. When viewed from below, the eyes are covered by the lower edge of the eye sockets. The only dorsal fin sits on the caudal fin stalk and, like the anal fin , is supported by five soft fin rays. The distal edge of the dorsal and anal fins is perpendicular to the horizontal axis of the body. The pectoral fins are fan-shaped. The vortex number is 21.
distribution
The slim winged steed comes close to the ground at depths of one to 73 meters (mostly 9 to 27 meters) in the Indo-Pacific from the coast of East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula via the Gulf of Mannar , the Bay of Bengal north to Japan, south to the coast of the tropical Australia and New Guinea and the Persian Gulf .
Way of life
The fish live on sandy and muddy bottoms in bays and estuaries . They can "walk" above the sea floor with the help of their pelvic spines. Sometimes they also partially dig into the ground. Young fish, which are widely displaced during their pelagic stage, can also be found in subtropical regions. Slender winged steed are rare.
literature
- Rudie H. Kuiter : Seahorses, pipefish, shredded fish and their relatives . Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2001 ISBN 3-8001-3244-3
Web links
- Slim winged steed on Fishbase.org (English)
- Pegasus volitans inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . 2. Posted by: Sorensen, M. & Vincent, A., 2009. Retrieved February 8, 2014.