The silk snapper (''Lutjanus vivanus''), the West Indian snapper, yellow-eyed snapper or yellow-eyed red snapper, 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 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. It is found in the Western Atlantic Ocean.

Taxonomy

The silk snapper was first formally described in 1828 as ''Mesoprion vivanus'' by the French

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier (; ), was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuv ...

with the type locality given as

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

. The specific name ''vivanus'' is derived from ''vivaneau'' and ''vivanet'', the local French names for this species on Martinique possibly originating from ''vivax'', meaning “lively”.

Description

The silk snapper has a moderately deep body with quite a sharp snout, the body has an oblong shape and is laterally compressed. The front and rear nostrils are simple holes. It has a large mouth with an upper jaw which can be protruded, this slips under the cheek bone when the mouth is closed. It has 1-2 rows of conical teeth on each jaw, the front teeth being enlarged into canines. the vomerine teeth are arranged in an anchor shaped patch with a rearwards extension on middle of the roof of the mouth, there is a patch of teeth on each side of the roof of the mouth. There is a deep incision on the lower margin of the preoperculum. The dorsal fin is continuous and has no incision. The dorsal fin has 10-11 spines and 13-14 soft rays while the anal fin has 3 spines and 7-8 soft rays. Both these fins are scaled. The pectoral fins are elongate, roughly equal in length to the head in adults. The caudal fin is emarginate. The overall colour is red to pinkish-red, paler on the abdomen. Some individuals are marked with very thin wavy yellow lines on the flank. A feature differentiating this species from similar

sympatric In biology, two closely related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter each other. An initially interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct spe ...

congeners is the vivid yellow iris. The fins are reddish although the anal and dorsal fins are tinted with yellow. The caudal fin has a dark margin and the pectoral fins are light yellow pectoral fins. The Juveniles have a black or red spot on the upper flanks just underneath the origin of the dorsal fin.

Distribution and habitat

The silk snapper is a species of the Western Atlantic Ocean. It occurs from North Carolina and Bermuda south through the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico south as far as

São Paulo, Brazil SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Serb Autonomous Regions (''Srpska autonomna oblast'', SAO), during the breakup of Yu ...

, including Trindade Island. It is found at depths from . The silk snapper occurs on the edge of continental and island shelves over substrates of sand, gravel, and coral. The juveniles inhabit shallower waters than the adults.

Biology

The silk snapper spends the day in deeper waters, ascending the water column at night to hunt. They are mainly predators of fish but also prey on crabs,

isopods Isopoda is an Order (biology), order of crustaceans. Members of this group are called isopods and include both Aquatic animal, aquatic species and Terrestrial animal, terrestrial species such as woodlice. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons ...

octopus An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like oth ...

, and shrimp. This species has a maximum longevity as much as 33 years. They spawn over much of the year in lower latitudes, but are spring and summer spawners in the more temperate parts of their range. This species attains sexual maturity in males at and in females off

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

Fisheries

The silk snapper is caught by commercial, artisanal and recreational fisheries. Fishers use traps, hook and line and sometimes bottom trawls, especially as bycatch in shrimp fisheries in Mexico. There have been reports of cases of ciguatera poisoning related to the consumption of the flesh of the silk snapper.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2641890 Fish described in 1828 Silk snapper