''Mullus'' is a subtropical marine genus of

perciform Perciformes (), also called the Percomorpha or Acanthopteri, is an order or superorder of ray-finned fish. If considered a single order, they are the most numerous order of vertebrates, containing about 41% of all bony fish. Perciformes means " ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

of the family Mullidae (

goatfish The goatfishes are perciform fish of the family Mullidae. The family is also sometimes referred to as the red mullets, which also refers more narrowly to the genus '' Mullus''. The family name and the English common name mullet derived from La ...

) and includes the

red mullet Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

s, occurring mainly in the southwest Atlantic near the South American coast and in the Eastern Atlantic including the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. These fish are benthic and can be found resting and feeding over soft substrates.

Distribution

Members of the genus ''Mullus'' can be found in the Atlantic Ocean, including the Mediterranean Sea. They are often found over soft substrates such as sand in which they search for prey using sensitive "whiskers".

Commercial Significance

The most commercially important of these species is the Red Mullet (''Mullus barbatus'') which is common in Mediterranean cuisine and often fished for using seine nets, a practice thought to be damaging as it can remove large numbers of spawning fish.

Species

There are currently four recognized species in this genus: Mullus surmuletus

* ''

Mullus argentinae ''Mullus argentinae'', the Argentine goatfish, is a species of ray-finned fish, a goatfish from the family Mullidae which is native to the western South Atlantic Ocean from Brazil to northern Argentina. This species was formally described in 1933 ...

'' Hubbs &

Marini Marini (last name) is a surname of Roman/Italian Catholic origin; closely associated with the last names: Marino and Mariani with the three patronymic forms emerging from the same region at approximately the same time. Migrations branching from Ita ...

, 1933 (Argentine goatfish) * ''

Mullus auratus ''Mullus auratus'', the red goatfish or northern goatfish, is a species of ray-finned fish, a goatfish from the family Mullidae which is native to the western Atlantic Ocean. Description ''Mullus auratus'' has a moderately elongated, cylindrical ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

& Gilbert, 1882 (Red goatfish) * ''

Mullus barbatus ''Mullus barbatus'' (red mullet) is a species of goatfish found in the Mediterranean Sea, Sea of Marmara, the Black Sea and the eastern North Atlantic Ocean, where its range extends from Scandinavia to Senegal. They are fished, mostly by trawlin ...

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

, 1758 (Red mullet) * ''

Mullus surmuletus The striped red mullet or surmullet (''Mullus surmuletus'') is a species of goatfish found in the Mediterranean Sea, eastern North Atlantic Ocean, and the Black Sea. They can be found in water as shallow as or as deep as depending upon the por ...

'' Linnaeus, 1758 (Surmullet)

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1289177 Mullidae Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus