Dash-and-dot goatfish
Encyclopedia
The dash-and-dot goatfish, Parupeneus barberinus, is a goatfish
of the family
Mullidae.
The dash-and-dot goatfish has the twin chin barbel
s typical of goatfishes.
The body color is white with a black to dark brown stripe (dash) reaching from the upper lip through the eye and along the body, followed by a black spot (dot) at the base of the caudal fin. Above the stripe, the body has a yellowish tint. Dash-and-dot goatfish from deeper water will usually have red stripes and spots. They can reach a maximum length of 60cm, making them the largest of the Mullidae family.
and is found in the Indo and Western Pacific Oceans. East coast of Africa, Gulf of Aden to Micronesia. Southern Japan to Australia.
It is found off reef flats and lagoons on sandy bottoms up to 100 meters deep.
s, small crustacean
s, and small fish.
Goatfish
Goatfishes are tropical marine perciform fish of the family Mullidae. Seldom found in brackish waters, goatfish are most associated with the reefs of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans...
of the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Mullidae.
Description
Barbel (anatomy)
A barbel on a fish is a slender, whiskerlike tactile organ near the mouth. Fish that have barbels include the catfish, the carp, the goatfish, sturgeon, the zebrafish and some species of shark...
s typical of goatfishes.
The body color is white with a black to dark brown stripe (dash) reaching from the upper lip through the eye and along the body, followed by a black spot (dot) at the base of the caudal fin. Above the stripe, the body has a yellowish tint. Dash-and-dot goatfish from deeper water will usually have red stripes and spots. They can reach a maximum length of 60cm, making them the largest of the Mullidae family.
Distribution and habitat
The dash-and-dot goatfish is considered one of the most abundant species of ParupeneusParupeneus
Parupeneus or Goatfishes is tropical marine genus of perciform fish of the family Mullidae. Seldom found in brackish waters, goatfish are most associated with the reefs of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. 28 species are recognized in this genus.*) NE - Not Evaluated. T) Type species....
and is found in the Indo and Western Pacific Oceans. East coast of Africa, Gulf of Aden to Micronesia. Southern Japan to Australia.
It is found off reef flats and lagoons on sandy bottoms up to 100 meters deep.
Diet
Dash-and-dot goatfish spend most of their time moving slowly over the bottom searching for prey with their barbels. Their diet includes wormWorm
The term worm refers to an obsolete taxon used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, and stems from the Old English word wyrm. Currently it is used to describe many different distantly-related animals that typically have a long cylindrical...
s, small crustacean
Crustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
s, and small fish.