Sickle fish
| Sickle fish | ||||||||||||
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Spotted sickle fish ( Drepane punctata ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the family | ||||||||||||
| Drepaneidae | ||||||||||||
| Gill , 1972 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Drepane | ||||||||||||
| Cuvier , 1831 |
The sickle fish ( Drepane ) are a species of marine fish with few species. They stand alone in the monotypic family Drepaneidae and were formerly counted among the spade fish (Ephippidae). They differ from the spade fish in that they have large, round (cycloid) scales and the larger, protruding mouth. Sicklefish live in the Indo-Pacific and on the coasts of West Africa over sand and muddy bottoms and near river mouths.
features
Sickle fish grow to be about half a meter long. Your body is high and significantly flattened on the sides. The mouth is strongly protruding (protractile). The sickle-shaped pectoral fins are longer than the head. The number of vertebrae is 24. The dorsal fin is supported by 13 or 14 spines and 19 to 22 soft rays, the anal fin by three spines and 17 to 19 soft rays.
species
- African sickle fish ( Drepane africana ) Osório, 1892 . 45 cm long, lives in the Eastern Atlantic, from the Canary Islands and Mauritania to Angola including Cape Verdes .
- Spotted sickle fish ( Drepane punctata ) Linnaeus , 1758 , 50 cm long. lives in the Indo-Pacific , from India to Northern Australia , New Guinea , Indonesia , the Philippines , Taiwan and Japan .
- Drepane longimana ( Bloch & Schneider , 1801) . 50 cm long, lives in the Red Sea and the Indo-Pacific, from East Africa to Northern Australia, New Guinea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan.
Drepane punctata and Drepane longimana only differ in their color and may have to be combined into one species.
literature
- Joseph S. Nelson : Fishes of the World. John Wiley & Sons, 2006, ISBN 0-471-25031-7 .
- Hans A. Baensch , Robert A. Patzner, Horst Moosleitner: Sea water atlas. Volume 7, Mergus Verlag, Melle 1998, ISBN 3-88244-107-0 .
Web links
- Drepaneidae on Fishbase.org (English)
- Drepane on Fishbase.org (English)