The filefish (Monacanthidae) are a diverse family of tropical to subtropical
tetraodontiform marine
fish
A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...
, which are also known as foolfish, leatherjackets, or shingles. They live in the
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...
,
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 ...
, and
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...
s. Filefish are closely related to
triggerfish
Triggerfish are about 40 species of often brightly colored marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Balistidae. Often marked by lines and spots, they inhabit tropical and subtropical oceans throughout the world, with the greatest speci ...
,
pufferfish
Tetraodontidae is a family of marine and freshwater fish in the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowers, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfis ...
, and
trunkfish.
The filefish family comprises about 102
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), ...
in 27
genera
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...
. More than half of the species are found in Australian waters, with 58 species in 23 genera.
Their laterally compressed bodies and rough, sandpapery skin inspired the filefish's common name.
Description
Appearing very much like their close relatives the triggerfish, filefish are
rhomboid
Traditionally, in two-dimensional geometry, a rhomboid is a parallelogram in which adjacent sides are of unequal lengths and angles are non-right angled.
The terms "rhomboid" and "parallelogram" are often erroneously conflated with each oth ...
-shaped, with beautifully elaborate cryptic patterns. Deeply keeled bodies give a false impression of size when the fish are viewed facing the flanks. Filefish have soft, simple fins, with comparatively small pectoral fins and truncated, fan-shaped tail fins; a slender, retractable spine crowns the head. Although usually two of these spines occur, the second spine is greatly reduced, being used only to lock the first spine in the erect position. That gives rise to the family name Monacanthidae, from the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
''monos'' meaning "one" and ''akantha'' meaning "thorn". Some species also have recurved spines on the base of the tail (
caudal peduncle
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 ...
).

The small terminal mouths of filefish have specialized incisor teeth on the upper and lower jaws. The upper jaw hase four teeth in the inner series and six in the outer series. The lower jaw has four to six in an outer series only. The snout is tapered and projecting, and the eyes are located high on the head. Filefish have rough non-overlapping scales with small spikes, which is why they are called filefish. Although scaled, some filefish have such small scales that they appear scaleless. Like the triggerfish, filefish have small
gill
A gill () is a respiration organ, respiratory organ that many aquatic ecosystem, aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow r ...
openings and greatly elongated pelvic bones, creating a "dewlap" of skin running between the bone's sharply keeled termination and the belly. The pelvis is articulated with other bones of the "pelvic girdle" and is capable of moving upwards and downwards in many species to form a large dewlap, which is used to make the fish appear much deeper in the body than is actually the case. Some filefish erect their dorsal spine and pelvis simultaneously to make removing them from a cave more difficult for predators.
The largest filefish species is the
scrawled filefish (''Aluterus scriptus'') at up to in length. Most species are less than in length. Marked
sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...
is seen in some species, with the sexes possessing different coloration, different body shapes; the males have larger caudal spines and bristles than females.
Habitat and life history
Adult filefish are generally shallow-water fish, inhabiting depths of no more than about 30 m (100 ft). They may be found in
lagoon
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...
s or associated with seaward
reef
A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...
s and
seagrass
Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine (ocean), marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four Family (biology), families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and ...
beds; some species may also enter
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 ...
. Some species are closely associated with dense mats of ''
Sargassum
''Sargassum'' is a genus of brown macroalgae ( seaweed) in the order Fucales of the Phaeophyceae class. Numerous species are distributed throughout the temperate and tropical oceans of the world, where they generally inhabit shallow water and ...
'', a particularly ubiquitous "sea weed"; these filefish, notably the plane head filefish (''
Stephanolepis hispidus''), are also coloured and patterned to match their weedy environments.
Either solitary, in pairs, or small groups depending on the species, filefish are not especially good swimmers; their small fins confine the fish to a sluggish pace. Filefish are often observed drifting head downward amongst stands of seaweed,
presumably in an effort to fool both predator and prey alike. When threatened, filefish may retreat into crevices in the reef.
The feeding habits of filefish vary among the species, with some eating only
alga
Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular microalgae, suc ...
e and seagrass; others also eat small
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". ...
invertebrate
Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...
s, such as
tunicate
Tunicates are marine invertebrates belonging to the subphylum Tunicata ( ). This grouping is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords (including vertebrates). The subphylum was at one time ...
s,
gorgonians, and
hydrozoa
Hydrozoa (hydrozoans; from Ancient Greek ('; "water") and ('; "animals")) is a taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class (biology), class of individually very small, predatory animals, some solitary and some colonial, most of which inhabit saline wat ...
ns; and some species eat
coral
Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...
s (corallivores). The latter two habits have largely precluded the introduction of filefish into the
aquarium
An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...
hobby.
Filefish spawn at bottom sites prepared and guarded by the males; both he and the female may guard the brood, or the male alone, depending on the species. The young filefish are
pelagic
The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the sur ...
, that is, they frequent open water. ''Sargassum'' provides a safe retreat for many species, both fish and weed being at the current's mercy. Juvenile filefish are at risk from predation by
tuna
A tuna (: tunas or tuna) is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae ( mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bul ...
and
dolphinfish
''Coryphaena'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes known as the dolphinfishes, and is currently the only known genus in the family Coryphaenidae. The generic name is from Greek κορυφή (''koryphē'', "crown, top") and -αινα (-''aina ...
.
As food

In
FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition ...
fisheries statistics, the largest category of filefish are ''
Cantherhines'' spp. with annual landings around 200,000 tonnes in recent years, mostly by China. Landings of threadsail filefish (''
Stephanolepis cirrhifer'') and
smooth leatherjacket (''Meuschenia scaber'') are reported at species level, with the rest as "Filefishes, leatherjackets nei" (nei = not elsewhere included).
Threadsail filefish (''Stephanolepis cirrhifer'') is a popular snack food in Korea. It is typically dried and made into a sweet and salty
jerky
Jerky is lean trimmed meat strips which are Food drying, dehydrated to prevent Food spoilage, spoilage and seasoned to varying degrees. Normally, this drying includes the addition of salt to prevent Microorganism, microbial growth through o ...
called ''
jwipo'' (), which is then roasted before eating.
Genera
* ''
Acanthaluteres''
* ''
Acreichthys''
* ''
Aluterus''
* ''
Amanses''
* ''
Anacanthus''
* ''
Arotrolepis''
* ''
Brachaluteres''
* ''
Cantherhines''
* ''
Cantheschenia''
* ''
Chaetodermis''
* ''
Colurodontis''
* ''
Enigmacanthus''
* ''
Eubalichthys''
* ''
Lalmohania''
* ''
Meuschenia''
* ''
Monacanthus''
* ''
Navodon''
* ''
Nelusetta''
* ''
Oxymonacanthus''
* ''
Paraluteres''
* ''
Paramonacanthus''
* ''
Pervagor''
* ''
Pseudalutarius''
* ''
Pseudomonacanthus''
* ''
Rudarius''
* ''
Scobinichthys''
* ''
Stephanolepis''
* ''
Thamnaconus''
See also
*
List of fish common names
*
List of fish families
This is a list of fish families sorted alphabetically by scientific name. There are 525 families in the list.
__NOTOC__
A - B - C - D - E - F -
G - H - I - J - K -
L - M - N - O - P - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z
- ...
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q948098
Balistoidei
Taxa named by Giovanni Domenico Nardo