Reeve's croaker (''Chrysochir aureus''), also known as the goldbelly croaker, golden corvina, yellowfin croaker or yellowfin corvina , is a species of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or h ...

belonging to the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Sciaenidae Sciaenidae are a family of fish in the order Acanthuriformes. They are commonly called drums or croakers in reference to the repetitive throbbing or drumming sounds they make. The family consists of about 286 to 298 species in about 66 to 70 gene ...

, the drums and croakers. This species is found in the coastal waters of the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

region. It is the only species in the

monospecific genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

''Chrysochir''.

Taxonomy

Reeve's croaker was first formally described as ''Otolithus aureus'' by the Scottish

naval surgeon A naval surgeon, or less commonly ship's doctor, is the person responsible for the health of the ship's company aboard a warship. The term appears often in reference to Royal Navy's medical personnel during the Age of Sail. Ancient uses Speciali ...

, naturalist and

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

John Richardson with its

type locality Type locality may refer to: * Type locality (biology) * Type locality (geology) See also * Local (disambiguation) * Locality (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

given as

Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ente ...

in China. In 1966

Ethelwynn Trewavas Ethelwynn Trewavas (5 November 1900 – 16 August 1993) was an ichthyologist at the British Museum of Natural History. She was known for her work on the families Cichlidae and Sciaenidae. She worked with Charles Tate Regan, another ichthyo ...

and G. M. Yazdani classified Reeve's croaker within the monospecific genus ''Chrysochir''. This species belongs to the family Sciaenidae in the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of ...

Acanthuriformes Acanthuriformes is an order of ray-finned fishes, part of the Percomorpha clade. Some authorities place the fishes in the order within the Acanthuriformes in the suborders Acanthuroidea and Percoidea of the order Perciformes. Classification T ...

. ''Nibea acuta'' is treated as a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are al ...

of ''Chrysochir aureus'' in ''

FishBase FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web.

'', but other authorities treat this taxon as a valid species.

Etymology

Reeve's croaker was described by Richardson based on a drawing by the naturalist John Reeves hence the English common name, although it should be Reeves's croaker. ''Chrysochir'', the genus name, is a compound of ''chrysos'', meaning "gold", and ''cheiros'', which means "hand", an allusion to the golden yellow

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

of this species. The specific name ''aureus'' means "golden" which is either a reference to the golden pectoral fin or is a

Latin transliteration Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

of its

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...

names, "Gold scale hwo" and "Golden-scaled han".

Description

Reeve's croaker is a slender-bodies, medium sized species of sciaenid with a maximum published

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish ...

of . It has an acutely pointed snout which projects in front of the upper jaw. The large mouth is almost horizontal with the upper jaw extending to below the rear margin of the eye. There are 3 pores on the upper snout and 5 along the sides and 3 pairs of mental pores. There are large and small teeth in each jaw, the large teeth forming the outer rows in the upper jaw, with 1 or 2 pairs of canine-like teeth that are over twice as long as the other enlarged teeth at tip of jaw. In the lower jaw the larger teeth are in the inner rows and there are no canine-like teeth. The front part of the

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...

is supported by 10 spines, then there is a notch and the second part is supported by a single spine and between 25 and 29 soft rays. The

anal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as s ...

is supported by 2 spines and 6 or 7 soft rays. The

caudal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as s ...

is pointed. Most of the body is covered in

ctenoid A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scales, which can also provide effective camouflage through the use of reflection and colouration, as w ...

scales except for the snout and beneath the eye where they are

cycloid In geometry, a cycloid is the curve traced by a point on a circle as it rolls along a straight line without slipping. A cycloid is a specific form of trochoid and is an example of a roulette, a curve generated by a curve rolling on another ...

. The scales of the lateral line extend to the tip of the caudal fin. The

swim bladder The swim bladder, gas bladder, fish maw, or air bladder is an internal gas-filled organ that contributes to the ability of many bony fish (but not cartilaginous fish) to control their buoyancy, and thus to stay at their current water depth w ...

is shaped like a carrot and has 27 to 30 pairs of fan-shaped appendages along its sides, none of which enter the head. The colour is metallic blue on the back and flanks, fading to silvery on the lower body. There are diagonal streaks on the scale rows on the back. The pectoral fins are yellow, while the other fins grey with tints of orange.

Distribution and habitat

Reeve's croaker is found in the Indo-West Pacific where it occurs from Sri Lanka, along the coasts of the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line bet ...

and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

, to southern China and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

and south to Malaysia and Indonesia. This species is found at depths between in shallow, coastal areas in both brackish and marine waters.

Biology

Reeve's croaker feeeds on crustaceans. In Taiwan, the females reach sexual maturity at lengths of roughly and spawning runs from June to December. Adults gather in large schools in turbid waters over mud substrates and local fishermen have reported seeing them in freshwater.

Fisheries

Reeve's croaker is a target for fisheries wherever it occurs and in some areas it fetches high prices. The flesh is sold fresh or salted.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q143011, from2=Q2650994 Fish of India Fish of China Fish described in 1846 Fish of the Indian Ocean Sciaenidae Taxa named by John Richardson (naturalist) Taxa named by Ethelwynn Trewavas