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| SCIENTIFIC
CLASSIFICATION |
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| COMMON
NAME: |
scrawled
filefish |
| KINGDOM: |
Animalia |
| PHYLUM: |
Chordata |
| CLASS: |
Osteichthyes |
| ORDER: |
Tetraodontiformes |
| FAMILY: |
Monacanthidae |
| GENUS
SPECIES: |
Aluterus scriptus |
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| DESCRIPTION: |
Olive-brown to pale gray body with irregular blue
lines and black dots distributed over entire surface.
Body is laterally flattened and elongate. Snout
ends in a pronounced tube-like mouth. Dorsal and
anal fins undulate to provide primary locomotion.
Solid (rounded) caudal fin is broom-like in appearance.
Caudal fin is often observed limp. |
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| SIZE: |
30.5-76.2 cm (1-2.5 ft) avg; 110 cm (3.6 ft) max
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| DIET: |
Algae, seagrass, hydrozoans, gorgonians, colonial
anemones, and tunicates |
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| RANGE: |
Western Atlantic: Nova Scotia to Gulf of Mexico
and Brazil
Eastern Atlantic: St. Paul's Rocks, Cape Verde and
Ascension Island to South Africa
Eastern Pacific: Gulf of California to Colombia
Western Indo-Pacific: Australia to Red Sea |
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| HABITAT: |
4-120 meters in tropical & sub-tropical marine
coastal waters |
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| POPULATION: |
GLOBAL |
No
data |
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| STATUS: |
IUCN |
Not listed |
| CITES |
Not listed |
| USFWS |
Not
listed |
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| 1. |
The
first dorsal spine of the scrawled filefish exhibits
small notches along its length, resembling a file
in appearance. This dorsal spine, then, contributes
to the species common name. |
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| 2. |
The primary dorsal spine can be made to stand erect.
Such a posture is utilized by several member of
the superfamily Balistoidea to lock themselves into
a crevice or crack within a reef system - thus making
predatory extraction difficult. |
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| 3. |
For
more information about bony fishes, explore the
bony
fishes info book. |
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|
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| Bond,
Carl E. Biology of Fishes - Second Edition.
Saunders College Publishing, 1996. |
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Humann, Paul. Reef Fish Identification - Florida,
Caribbean, Bahamas. New World Publications,
Inc., 1992. |
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www.fishbase.org
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