Dog Snapper
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The dog snapper (''Lutjanus jocu''), also known as the dogtooth snapper, pargue or snuggletooth snapper, 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), ...
of marine
ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...
, a snapper belonging to the
family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
Lutjanidae Lutjanidae or snappers are a family of perciform fishes, mainly marine but with some members inhabiting estuaries and, in some cases, fresh water (e.g., '' Lutjanus goldiei''). The family includes about 113 species. Most species are used for foo ...
. It is native to the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
. It is a commercially important species, and is popular for display in public aquaria.


Taxonomy

The dog snapper was first formally described in 1801 as ''Anthias jocu'' by the German
naturalists Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
Marcus Elieser Bloch and Johann Gottlob Schneider with no type locality given, although this is thought to be
Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
''jocu'' is the local name for this species in Cuba, according to the Portuguese naturalist Antonio Parra.


Description

The dog snapper has a relatively deep, compressed body. It has long
pectoral fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish aquatic locomotion, swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the vertebral column ...
s, an emarginate or slightly forked
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 ...
, a rounded
anal 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 o ...
and a bilobed
dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...
. Its nostrils are arranged in front and rear pairs and are simple tubes. It has a relatively large mouth which has a moderately protrusible upper jaw which slips under the cheekbone in the closed mouth. A pair of very enlarged canine-like teeth in the upper jaw stay visible when the mouth is closed. The
vomerine teeth The vomer (; ) is one of the unpaired facial bones of the skull. It is located in the midsagittal line, and articulates with the sphenoid, the ethmoid, the left and right palatine bones, and the left and right maxillary bones. The vomer forms t ...
are arranged in a chevron or crescent shape with a long rearwards extension running from its middle, creating an anchor like shape. There is also a patch of teeth on each side of the roof of the mouth. The
preoperculum This glossary of ichthyology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in ichthyology, the study of fishes. A B C ...
has a weakly developed incision and knob. The dorsal fin has 10 spines and 14-15 soft rays while the anal fin contains 3 spines and 8 soft rays. The long perctoral fin extends as far as the
anus In mammals, invertebrates and most fish, the anus (: anuses or ani; from Latin, 'ring' or 'circle') is the external body orifice at the ''exit'' end of the digestive tract (bowel), i.e. the opposite end from the mouth. Its function is to facil ...
and contains16-17 rays. This fish attains a maximum
total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish measured f ...
of , although is more typical, and the maximum published weight is . The adults have olive green upper flanks and backs, which may be marked with slender light-coloured bars. The lower flanks and abdomen are pale red and copper. Beneath the eyes there is a white triangular bar. The pectoral,
pelvic The pelvis (: pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of an anatomical trunk, between the abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also called bony pelvis or pelvic skeleton). ...
, anal fins and outer parts of the soft rayed part of the dorsal fin and the caudal fin are reddish, while the remainder of the dorsal and caudal fins are olive green in colour. The juveniles have a longitudinal blue line underneath the eye extending on to the gill cover, this breaks up into a line of spots in the adults.


Distribution and habitat

Dog snapper is mainly found in the western Atlantic Ocean where there range extends from
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
south to
São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
in Brazil, including the
Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...
, the
Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...
and
Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...
and from Saint Paul's Rocks south to Principe in the eastern Atlantic. A first single record was reported for the
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...
in 2005 in Ligurian waters, Italy. Adults are generally found around rocky outcrops or
coral reefs A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. ...
, while juveniles tend to remain primarily within
estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...
and occasionally within rivers. Dog snappers are known to have occurred at depths in excess of in some areas but they are more frequent at depths of .


Biology

Dog snappers tend to be solitary, aggregating to spawn in the early spring.


Feeding

Dog snappers are nocturnal predators prey nocturnally on smaller fish and
benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning "the depths". ...
invertebrates, including
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 (including
crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...
s and
shrimp A shrimp (: shrimp (American English, US) or shrimps (British English, UK)) is a crustacean with an elongated body and a primarily Aquatic locomotion, swimming mode of locomotion – typically Decapods belonging to the Caridea or Dendrobranchi ...
s),
gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...
s, and
cephalopod A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan Taxonomic rank, class Cephalopoda (Greek language, Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral symm ...
s.


Breeding

Dog snappers have their main breeding grounds off Jamaica and in the northeastern Caribbean where they typically
spawn Spawn or spawning may refer to: * Spawning, the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals Arts, entertainment and media * Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise ** ''Spawn: Armageddon' ...
during March. They do spawn elsewhere in their range but not to the same extents as in the early Spring in the Caribbean. They may form spawning aggregations, often mixed with Cubera snappers (''L. cyanopterus''). Off Brazil they spawn twice a year and the gonads are most developed between June and October. This species has
planktonic Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms that drift in water (or air) but are unable to actively propel themselves against currents (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they pro ...
eggs and larvae which are spread by the current. Little is known about the development of the larvae until the post-larval stage finally settles into suitable habitat where it gains a measure of protection from predators.


Predators and parasites

Dog snappers are preyed on by large predatory fish such as sharks and groupers as adults, smaller fish are prey to a number of different marine animals.
monogenea Monogeneans, members of the class Monogenea, are a group of ectoparasitic flatworms commonly found on the skin, gills, or fins of fish. They have a direct lifecycle and do not require an intermediate host. Adults are hermaphrodites, meaning they ...
n worms from the genus '' Euryhaliotrema'' have been recorded living on the gills of different snapper species, including this species.
Copepods Copepods (; meaning 'oar-feet') are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat. Some species are planktonic (living in the water column), some are benthic (living on the sediments), several species have ...
of the genus '' Caligus'', the Acanthocephalan worm '' Gorgorhynchus cablei'', the digeneans in the genus '' Hamacreadium'', '' Helicometrina'' and Metadena are also known to be parasites on dog snappers.


Fisheries and conservation

The dog snapper has been known to be ciguatoxic, especially the larger specimens, and in areas where this is known there is little interest in fishing for this species. However, where ciguatoxicity is rare this species is a valued food fish and is pursued by commercial fisheries. They are caught using handlines, gill nets, traps, seines, and spears. The catch is sold as fresh and frozen fish. This species seems to be overexploited in some of its range and the juvenile mangrove habitat is threatened by coastal development. In most of its range no catch data is collected and as a result of the lack of data, the perceived decline and the habitat loss for juveniles the
IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...
has classified this species as
Data Deficient A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessaril ...
. It is sometimes display in public aquaria.


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q955345 dog snapper Fish of the Eastern United States Fish of the Western Atlantic Fish of the Caribbean Taxa named by Marcus Elieser Bloch Taxa named by Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider dog snapper