''Kyphosus elegans'', the Chopa Mojonera or Cortez chub, is a species 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

sea chub The sea chubs, also known as rudderfish and pilot fish and in Hawaiian as ''enenue'' or ''nenue'', are a family, Kyphosidae, (from Greek, ''kyphos'' = hump) of fishes in the order Perciformes native to the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans u ...

from 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 ...

Kyphosidae. It is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean where it is of minor importance to commercial fisheries.

Description

''Kyphosus elegans'' has an oval, laterally compressed body with a small head and a pointed snout, the forehead slopes steeply in front of the eyes. The mouth is small and when closed the

maxilla In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxil ...

are partially hidden beneath the preorbital bones. The teeth are very characteristic and form a single row in the front of both jaws, they are incisiform and have a rather lanceolate shape, resembling the head of a hockey stick, they have compressed roots and they are set horizontally, creating a striated plate within the oral cavity, There are teeth on the

vomer 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 ...

too. The

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 ...

is continuous, the front part contains 10-11 spines which can be folded into a groove which is covered in scales, the rear part has 13 soft rays. with the first few rays being higher than the rest. The

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 ...

has 2-3 spines and 12 soft with the longest rays being at the front and these are half the length of the base of the anal fin. 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 ...

is forked. Much of the body is covered in small, thick, rough scales except for a patch between the eyes. The

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelia ...

contains 61-69 scales, of which 52-57 have pores. The body may be silvery in colour or it can be bronze or brown, they may also show a mottled pattern of white spots over the body. The mottle pattern is more commonly seen in fish demonstrating

territorial A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, belonging or connected to a particular country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually a geographic area which has not been granted the powers of self-government, ...

behaviour. The tail is dusky. This species has 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 a more common total length is .

Distribution

''Kyphosus elegans'' is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean from the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California (), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Vermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California peninsula from ...

to Panama, it also occurs in the Galapagos, and other eastern Pacific islands.

Habitat and biology

''Kyphosus elegans'' is a coastal fish, the adults are found on reef flats or on reefs, while the juveniles are often found in tidal pools. It sometimes forms mixed schools with ''

Kyphosus analogus ''Kyphosus'' is a genus of sea chubs native to the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. Species There are currently 16 recognized species in this genus: * '' Kyphosus analogus'' ( T. N. Gill, 1862) (Blue-bronze sea chub) * ''Kyphosus atlanticus ...

'' and also with ''

Prionurus laticlavius ''Prionurus laticlavius'' the razor surgeonfish or razor sawtail, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the Family (biology), family Acanthuridae, the surgeonfishes, unicornfishes and tangs. This fish is found in the eastern central ...

'', with which it also grazes. This species feeds mainly on attached algae and will occasionally east plankton and benthic invertebrates. An analysis of the somach contents of sampled specimens indicated that ''

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 ...

'' is the main algae eaten. It is the host of several ectoparasites such as '' Caligus chamelensis'', '' C. latigenitalis'', '' C. mutabilis'' or '' C. serratus''.

Fisheries

''Kyphosus elegans'' is considered important for commercial fisheries in the Gulf of Montijo in Panama.

Species description and taxonomy

''Kyphosus elegans'' was first formally described as ''Pimelepterus elegans'' in 1869 by Wilhelm Peters from a

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

purchased in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, western Mexico. In 1880

Henri Émile Sauvage Henri Émile Sauvage (22 September 1842 in Boulogne-sur-Mer – 3 January 1917 in Boulogne-sur-Mer) was a French paleontologist, ichthyologist, and Herpetology, herpetologist. He was a leading expert on Mesozoic fish and reptiles.

described a species of ''Kyphosus'' from

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

from specimens which had been sent to him by a French consul there and named it as ''Kyphosus sandvicensis'' but there appears to have been a mix up as his description does not match the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...

lodged in the

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Ja ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and recent workers have found that ''K. sandvicensis'' is a

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

of ''K. elegans'', although

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.

still treats it as a valid species, with a note that it is a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely 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 a ...

of ''K. elegans''.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q2051609 elegans Fish described in 1869 Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters