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• Taxonomy
• Physical Description
• Distribution
• Habitat
• Similar Species
• Bibliography
• More Info
• Notes
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Overview:

Family: Sea basses: groupers and fairy basslets; Inhabits rubble bottoms with strong current.

Taxonomy

Notes:

Name Status: Accepted Name. Latest taxonomic scrutiny: Group expert : Heemstra P.C.

Physical Description

Family Serranidae:

Distribution: Tropical and temperate oceans. Some enter freshwater. Operculum bearing 3 spines - a main spine with one below and one above it. Lateral line complete and continuous, not reaching onto caudal fin (lacking in one species). Dorsal fin may be notched, with 7-12 spines. Three spines on anal fin. Caudal fin usually rounded, truncate, or lunate; rarely forked. Tip of maxilla exposed even with mouth closed. No scaly axillary pelvic process. One spine on pelvic fin; soft rays 5. Branchiostegal rays usually 7. Vertebrae 24-26. Monoecious with some functional hermaphrodites; groupers are protogynous hermaphrodites. Anthiinae are mostly small colorful planktivores feeding primarily on tiny crustaceans and fish eggs. They change sex from females to a few dominant males. Despite their attractive colors they need zooplankton as food and are thus not well suited for aquariums. Groupers attain up to 3 m maximum length and weights of up to 400 kg. They are bottom-dwelling predators and highly commercial food fish. Groupers are hardy aquarium fish, but grow rapidly. Grammistinae get their name from a bitter tasting skin toxin, grammistin, which can kill other animals in an aquarium. They feed on crustaceans and fishes.

The family Serranidae belongs to the Class Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes) and the Order Perciformes. It contains 62 genera and 449 species. It may be found in Marine, Brackish, and Freshwater environments and is primarily Marine. Many members of this family are used in the aquarium trade. Reproductively, most members of this family are nonguarders. The main mode of swimming of adult fish in this family is subcarangiform. Compared with other fish, the activity level of this family tends to be normal. Members of this family have been dated back to the Eocene epoch of the Tertiary period. Etymology of this family name: Latin, serranus = derived from saw, fish saw. 1803

Images:

Distribution

Range and Population

Western Indian Ocean: Mauritius, Maldives, Sri Lanka.

Habitat

Biome

Saltwater. Reef-associated.

Similar Species

Members of the genus Rabaulichthys:

There are approximately 3 species and subspecies in this genus: R. altipinnis (Sailfin Anthias) · R. stigmaticus (Spotfin Anthias) · R. suzukii

Members of the genus Pterobrycon:

There are approximately 2 species and subspecies in this genus: P. landoni · P. myrnae (Semaphore Tetra)

Bibliography

• Fricke, R. (1999). Fishes of the Mascarene Islands (Réunion, Mauritius, Rodriguez): an annotated checklist, with descriptions of new species. Koeltz Scientific Books, Koenigstein, Theses Zoologicae, Vol. 31: 759 p.
• Randall, J.E. and C. Anderson (1993). Annotated checklist of the epipelagic and shore fishes of the Maldives Islands. Ichthyol. Bull. of the J.L.B. Smith Inst. of Ichthyol. 59:47.

More Info

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Notes

Contributors:

• Bisby, F.A., Y.R. Roskov, M.A. Ruggiero, T.M. Orrell, L.E. Paglinawan, P.W. Brewer, N. Bailly, J. van Hertum, eds (2007). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2007 Annual Checklist. Species 2000: Reading, U.K.
• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-2006. Systema Naturae 2000. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Accessed October 10, 2006.
• FishBase
• FishBase 2006.
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed March 02, 2008. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 2 providers.
• Heemstra, Phillip C. (from FishBase).

Data Sources:

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal March 02, 2008:

• FishBase: FishBase DiGIR Provider - Philippine Server
• Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University: South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity - Fish Collection (AfrOBIS)

Identifiers:

• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 643395
• Fishbase Species ID: 24436
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 131349
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 122803