The dash-and-dot goatfish (''Parupeneus barberinus'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

goatfish The goatfishes are ray-finned fish of the family Mullidae, the only family in the suborder Mulloidei of the order Syngnathiformes. The family is also sometimes referred to as the red mullets, which also refers more narrowly to the genus '' Mul ...

native to the

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

and

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

oceans.

Description

The dash-and-dot goatfish has the twin chin

barbel Barbel may refer to: *Barbel (anatomy), a whisker-like organ near the mouth found in some fish (notably catfish, loaches and cyprinids) and turtles *Barbel (fish), a common name for certain species of fish **''Barbus barbus'', a species of cyprini ...

s typical of goatfishes. The body color is white with a black to dark brown stripe (dash) reaching from the upper lip through the eye and along the body, followed by a black spot (dot) at the base of the

caudal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only ...

. Above the stripe, the body has a yellowish tint. Dash-and-dot goatfish from deeper water will usually have red stripes and spots. They can reach a maximum length of 60 cm, making them the largest of the family

Mullidae The goatfishes are ray-finned fish of the family Mullidae, the only family in the suborder Mulloidei of the order Syngnathiformes. The family is also sometimes referred to as the red mullets, which also refers more narrowly to the genus ''Mullus ...

Distribution and habitat

The dash-and-dot goatfish is considered one of the most abundant species of ''

Parupeneus ''Parupeneus'' is a genus of goatfishes native to the Indian and Pacific oceans. Species There are currently 32 recognized species in this genus: * '' Parupeneus angulatus'' Randall & Heemstra, 2009 * '' Parupeneus barberinoides'' (Bleeker, ...

'', and is found in the Indian and western Pacific Oceans, the east coast of Africa, and the Gulf of Aden to Micronesia and southern Japan to Australia. It is found off reef flats and lagoons on sandy bottoms up to 100 m deep.

Diet

Dash-and-dot goatfish spend most of their time moving slowly over the bottom searching for prey with their barbels. Their diet includes

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateria, bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limb (anatomy), limbs, and usually no eyes. Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine ...

s, small

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

s, and small fish.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2199433

Dash The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Fish described in 1801