The Lethrinidae are a family of fishes in the order
Perciformes
Perciformes (), also called the Percomorpha or Acanthopteri, is an order or superorder of ray-finned fish. If considered a single order, they are the most numerous order of vertebrates, containing about 41% of all bony fish. Perciformes means ...
commonly known as emperors, emperor breams, and pigface breams.
These fish are found in tropical waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and ''Lethrinus atlanticus'' is also found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. They are
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 ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...
feeders, consuming
invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
s and small fishes. Some species have
molariform teeth which they use to eat shelled invertebrates, such as
mollusks
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...
and
crabs.
Gallery
File:Lethrinus olivaceus.jpg, Longface emperor ('' Lethrinus olivaceus'')
File:Gnathodentex aureolineatus.jpg, Striped large-eye bream ('' Gnathodentex aureolineatus'')
File:Monotaxis-grandoculis.JPG, Humpnose big-eye bream ('' Monotaxis grandoculis'')
References
*Carpenter, K. E. and G. R. Allen (Hrsg.): ''Emperor fishes and large-eye breams of the world (Family Lethrinidae). An annotated and illustrated catalogue of lethrinid species known to date.'' FAO Species Catalogue Vol. 9, Rom 1989.
Download
External links
Ichthyological Bulletin; No. 17: Fishes of the family Lethrinidae from the Western Indian Ocean
{{Taxonbar, from=Q31402
Fish of Hawaii
Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte