To cristatus
| To cristatus | ||||||||||||
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Adult too cristatus , the mouth is turned forward. |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| To cristatus | ||||||||||||
| ( Bonelli , 1819) |
Zu cristatus is a pelagic marine fish that occurs worldwide in tropical and subtropical seas. Its distribution area in the eastern Atlantic extends from Guinea to Angola . It was also found in the Mediterranean , Madeira , the Azores and the coast of South Africa . In the western Atlantic it is known from Bermuda , the coast of Florida and Cuba , the northeastern Gulf of Mexico and the coast of Guyana , in the eastern Pacific from the coast of California to Peru and the Galápagos Islands . The fish was long known as " Trachypterus cristatus "because of its strange shape; Bonelli described it as Trachipterus (which means rough-hawk), and this genus was later divided (Walters et Fitch 1960).
features
To cristatus reaches a maximum length of 1.18 meters. Its body is elongated and strongly flattened on the sides. It can be distinguished from other scythes by the wavy side line at the back . The bright red, fringed dorsal fin extends almost over the entire length of the body. It is supported by 120 to 150 fin rays. One anal fin is missing. The number of vertebrae is 62 to 69. The mouth is strongly protruding (protractile), which speaks for easily volatile prey, which can be obtained by sucking.
The belly of young fish, less than 30 cm in length, has a step-like profile between the long ventral fins and the anus and suddenly tapers in front of the middle of the body. The first rays of the dorsal fin are greatly elongated. The caudal fin is black, large, and fan-shaped. It sits almost vertically (upwards) on the pointed end of the body. The color of the fry is silvery, with six vertical stripes on the back of the band-shaped body and four vertical stripes on the belly. Six vertical bands surround the tail fin stalk.
Adult Zu cristatus are silvery to bluish gray, lighter on the underside, the tiny caudal fin behind reddish black. Your body tapers evenly, pelvic fins are missing, the front dorsal fin rays are then no longer elongated.
Way of life
To cristatus lives pelagic and swims in an almost vertical position, with the head up. It feeds on small fish and on cephalopods . Eggs, larvae, and fry are also pelagic. Young fish live close to the surface to a depth of 90 meters, the adults are possibly deep-sea inhabitants. Details are not known.
literature
- Eschmeyer, Herald, Hamann: Pacific Coast Fishes , Peterson Field Guides, ISBN 0-395-33188-9
Web links
- To cristatus on Fishbase.org (English)