''Macroramphosus'', snipefishes or bellowfishes, is a genus of

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 ...

es found in tropical and subtropical oceans at depths down to . According to

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.

, they are part of the family Centriscidae, but Nelson (2016) split that family, in which case the genus ''Macroramphosus'' is in the family Macroramphosidae. They have long second spines on their

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 ...

s and tiny mouths at the tip of their greatly elongated snouts. The bodies of snipefish are more streamlined than in the related bellowfishes. They reach a maximum length of about , and are silvery or reddish in colour. They are sometimes found in large

schools A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of ...

. This is the only genus on the

monogeneric In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

family Macroranphosidae but some authorities include the genera '' Centriscops'' and '' Notopogon'' in this family too.

Species

Currently, two recognized species are placed in this genus: * '' Macroramphosus gracilis'' ( R. T. Lowe, 1839) (slender snipefish) * '' Macroramphosus scolopax'' (

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

, 1758) (longspine snipefish)

References

Centriscidae Marine fish genera Taxa named by Bernard Germain de Lacépède {{Syngnathiformes-stub