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| SCIENTIFIC
CLASSIFICATION |
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| COMMON
NAME: |
Atlantic porkfish |
| KINGDOM: |
Animalia |
| PHYLUM: |
Chordata |
| CLASS: |
Osteichthyes |
| ORDER: |
Perciformes |
| FAMILY: |
Haemulidae (some sources cite Pomadasyidae) |
| GENUS
SPECIES: |
Anisotremus virginicus |
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| DESCRIPTION: |
Silver to light yellow tapered body with yellow
stripes along entire length. Fins and forehead are
solid yellow. Two black bars run along head - one
through the eye and the other along the edge of
the gill plate. Centrally cleft (forked) caudal
fin. Juvenile form exhibits a white body with a
yellow snout, forehead, and forward portion of dorsal
fin. Two black stripes run the length of the body.
Black spot is found at caudal peduncle. |
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| SIZE: |
15.2-25.4 cm (6-10 in) avg; 40.6 cm (16.0 in) max
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| WEIGHT: |
930 g (2.1 lbs) max |
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| DIET: |
Annelids, mollusks, crustaceans, and echinoderms
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| RANGE: |
Western Atlantic: Bermuda and Florida to Brazil,
including Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean |
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| HABITAT: |
10-60 feet in tropical & sub-tropical coastal
marine waters |
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| POPULATION: |
GLOBAL |
No
data |
| LOCAL |
Recent NOAA studies conducted in the waters adjacent
to the Florida Keys found that porkfish were the
eleventh most commonly sighted species within the
region. |
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| STATUS: |
IUCN |
Not listed |
| CITES |
Not
listed |
| USFWS |
Not
listed |
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| 1. |
The
Atlantic porkfish is the only Caribbean grunt with
two black vertical bars and yellow stripes. |
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| 2. |
Porkfish are primarily nocturnal predators, targeting
benthic prey items. |
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| 3. |
Juvenile porkfish are observed symbiotically feeding
on parasites found on other fish species. |
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| 4. |
Porkfish,
like all grunts, produce grunt-like sounds via their
pharyngeal teeth and swim bladder. These sounds
seem to be particularly associated with situations
of duress. |
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| 5. |
For
more information about bony fishes, explore the
bony
fishes info book. |
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Porkfish,
like other reef inhabitants, are susceptible to
habitat loss.
Juvenile
porkfish are occasionally found in mangrove environments.
Both
reef and mangrove environments are areas which
have (globally) been exposed to various environmental
pressures. Degradation or collapse of local and/or
global systems could have a serious impact on
porkfish populations. Accordingly, habitat-wide
management systems - such as are exhibited with
the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary - are
more likely to provide positive, long-term sustainability
(as concerns porkfish and associated marine species
populations) versus impacted systems devoid of
any consistent resource management plan.
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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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| www.noaa.gov |
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