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| SCIENTIFIC
CLASSIFICATION |
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| COMMON
NAME: |
Atlantic spadefish |
| KINGDOM: |
Animalia |
| PHYLUM: |
Chordata |
| CLASS: |
Osteichthyes |
| ORDER: |
Perciformes |
| FAMILY: |
Ephippidae |
| GENUS
SPECIES: |
Chaetodipterus faber |
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| DESCRIPTION: |
Silver disc-shaped body with black bars and black
forward edge to the single dorsal and anal fins.
Dorsal and anal fins begin a body mid-point - forming
roughly equal triangular structures. Solid (truncate)
caudal fin is prominently flanked by dorsal and
anal fins. If stood on their caudal fin, their overall
body shape is reflective of the spade found within
a typical deck of playing cards - hence their common
name. |
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| SIZE: |
30.5-45.7 cm (1-1.5 ft); 91 cm (3 ft) max |
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| WEIGHT: |
9.0 kg (19.8 lbs) max |
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| DIET: |
Cnidarians, annelids, mollusks, crustaceans, and
plankton |
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| INCUBATION: |
Eggs develop relatively rapidly, exhibiting an incubation
period of approximately 24 hours |
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| LIFE
SPAN: |
5 years (average);19 years (max.) |
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| RANGE: |
Western Atlantic: Massachusetts to Gulf of Mexico
and southeastern Brazil |
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| HABITAT: |
3-35 meters in tropical & sub-tropical open
and coastal marine and brackish 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. |
In
an attempt to camouflage themselves, darkly colored
juvenile spadefish will often drift, leaf-like,
in estuarine and coastal marine waters. |
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| 2. |
Adults may congregate in large schools - consisting
of up to 500 individuals. |
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| 3. |
Atlantic spadefish will congregate around a variety
of environmental super-structures - including reef
systems, sunken vessels and debris, and oil derricks. |
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| 4. |
For
more information about bony fishes, explore the
bony
fishes info book. |
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| Spadefish
will target planktonic prey items (including jellyfish
and copepods) as well as benthic prey items (including
hydroids, sponges, ascidians, anthozoans, and polychaetes).
They, in turn, are prey items for finfish, sharks,
and rays. |
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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.core.ecu.edu
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| www.fishbase.org |
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| www.odu.edu |
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