The Microcanthinae, commonly known as footballers, mados, stripeys, and moonlighters, are a subfamily of the

sea chub The sea chubs, also known as rudderfish and pilot fish and in Hawaiian as ''enenue'' or ''nenue'', are a family, Kyphosidae, of fishes in the order Perciformes native to the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans usually close to shore in marine ...

s, a

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or h ...

in the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of ...

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 ...

Taxonomy

Microacanthinae is treated as a subfamily of the sea chub

Kyphosidae The sea chubs, also known as rudderfish and pilot fish and in Hawaiian as ''enenue'' or ''nenue'', are a family, Kyphosidae, of fishes in the order Perciformes native to the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans usually close to shore in marine ...

within the order Perciformes in the 5th edition of ''

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' by the American Ichthyology, ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011) is a standard reference for fish systematics. Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of the diversity and classificat ...

'', but other authorities treat it as a family, the Microacanthidae. It has also been placed in the order Pempheriformes in some classifications, and in the

Centrarchiformes Centrarchiformes is an obsolete order of ray-finned fish, now included amongst the perciformes, with 17 previously included families. This order first appeared about 55.8 million years ago in the Eocene Era, and is composed primarily of omnivore ...

in others.

Classification

The following genera are classified in the subfamily Microcanthinae: * '' Atypichthys'' Günther, 1862 * '' Microcanthus'' Swainson, 1839 * '' Neatypus'' Waite, 1905 * '' Tilodon'' Thominot, 1881

Characteristics

The Microcathinae is a subfamily of moderately sized fishes, most of which grow no longer than . They have an oval body. They have a small terminal mouth which does not extend as far as the front of the eye. They have small teeth which are set close together and have pointed tips, and are set out either in a broad band or a single row. There is one

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...

which has 11 or 12 spines and 16-18 soft rays while the

anal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as s ...

has three spines and 16-19 soft rays. The

pelvic fin Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral surface of fish. The paired pelvic fins are homologous to the hindlimbs of tetrapods. Structure and function Structure In actinopterygians, the pelvic fin consists of two e ...

s start just behind the end of the base of the

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

. Their

caudal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as s ...

s vary from emarginate through to forked. They have small

ctenoid A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scales, which can also provide effective camouflage through the use of reflection and colouration, as w ...

scales which reach onto the cheeks and upper part of gill covers, and form scaly sheaths at the bases of the dorsal and anal fins, with scales extending on to the soft-rayed parts of those fins. They have a continuous lateral line which is evenly curved. They are normally yellowish or whitish in colour, marked with dark brown or blackish almost horizontal or oblique stripes.

Habitat, biology and range

The species of the Microcanthinae are found off shallow coastal areas and in rocky estuaries, mainly over hard substrates. They occur from the intertidal zone down to depths of ; their diet comprises small invertebrates and algae. They prefer subtropical and warm temperate seas, occurring in the southeast Indian Ocean, the southwestern Pacific Ocean off Australia and New Zealand, and around southern Japan, Taiwan and the Hawaiian islands.

Fisheries

Microcanthines are of little interest to fisheries although they are of interest to the aquarium trade.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2355564 Kyphosidae