The stone bream (''Neoscorpis lithophilus'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

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, which is native to the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

coast of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

where it can be found along rocky coasts from

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. This species grows to a length of SL though most do not exceed . The greatest recorded weight for this fish is . This species is commercially important and is also popular as a

game fish Game fish, sport fish or quarry refer to popular fish species pursued by recreational fishing, recreational fishers (typically angling, anglers), and can be freshwater fish, freshwater or saltwater fish. Game fish can be fish as food, eaten aft ...

. This species is the only known member of its

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Anatomy & morphology

The stone bream is a fast growing fish. They can live at least 10 years. The max recorded length of the stone-bream is about 50 centimetres although the most common size for this fish is typically 18 centimetres long. An adult stone bream can reach up to 27 cm and can weigh around 2.6 kg. The stone bream is often blue and silver in color. Each stone bream has anywhere from 6-8 dorsal fins and 20-25 dorsal soft rays. They are also equipped with 3 anal spines and around 20-26 anal soft rays. They have very small mouths. Like other species in the Kyphosid family, ''Neoscorpis lithophilus'' has two distinct rows of teeth. The front row contains 34 flat and sharp frontal teeth within their jaws. The second row of smaller sharp teeth protrudes from behind the first row of teeth. Their mouth contains around 3460 taste buds.

Habitat & distribution

The stone bream can be found mainly in the Western Indian Ocean where it is native in the subtropical regions from 25°S - 35°S, 18°E - 34°E. The stone bream is found along the African coast from

Inhaca Inhaca is a settlement in Mozambique, on the subtropical Inhaca Island ('' Ilha da Inhaca'' in Portuguese) off the East African coast. Inhaca settlement is centered on a mission station located about 32 km east of Maputo. Geography and admi ...

in Mozambique to

False Bay False Bay (Afrikaans: ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarc ...

in South Africa, it also occurs along the eastern coast of Madagascar. Stone breams tend to gather in shallow tropical waters as opposed to deep waters. They tend to be desmeral, meaning that they tend to live at the bottom of the sea floor. They feed off of macro-algae found at the bottom of the oceans.

Behavior

Stone breams are mainly herbivores, meaning that their diet is composed of marine plants like macro-algae. Their diet consists of

red algae Red algae, or Rhodophyta (, ; ), make up one of the oldest groups of eukaryotic algae. The Rhodophyta comprises one of the largest Phylum, phyla of algae, containing over 7,000 recognized species within over 900 Genus, genera amidst ongoing taxon ...

and other sea plants. Because of this, they tend to dwell in shallow, rocky waters, feeding off of many different kinds of plants. Stone breams become sexually mature at

fork 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 fr ...

s of for males and for females, when they are 3 to 4 years of age.

Spawning Spawn is the Egg cell, eggs and Spermatozoa, sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of freely releasing eggs and sperm into a body of water (fresh or marine); the physical act is ...

takes place in midwinter, July to January, but little is known about the subsequent development of the larvae. A tagging study off South Africa found that a relatively low number of tagged fish are recovered which suggests that this species is somewhat nomadic. However, it is thought that, as is typical for reef fishes, this species is more likely to be sedentary.

Taxonomy

The stone bream is a member of the family Kyphosidae. Some authorities include the stone bream in a Kyphosidae family which is divided into two different genera: ''

Kyphosus ''Kyphosus'' is a genus of sea chubs native to the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Species There are currently 16 recognized species in this genus: * ''Kyphosus analogus'' (Theodore Nicholas Gill ...

'' and ''Neoscorpis''. The genus ''Neoscorpis'' is

monospecific 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 ...

, i.e. it contains only one known species which is ''Neoscorpis lithophilus''. The 5th edition of ''

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' is a standard reference for the systematics of fishes. It was first written in 1976 by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011). Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of t ...

'' retains ''Neoscorpis'' in the subfamily

Scorpidinae The Scorpidinae, commonly known as halfmoons, knifefishes, and sweeps, are a subfamily of the family Kyphosidae, the sea chubs, a family of marine fish in the order Perciformes. The Scorpidinae are distributed throughout the Pacific and east In ...

, while other authorities place this species in the Kyphosidae ''

sensu stricto ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular c ...

''. The stone bream was first formally described in 1908 as ''Scorpis lithophilus'' by the

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

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 ...

John Gilchrist and his South African born colleague

William Wardlaw Thompson William Wardlaw Thompson (date of birth unknown - died 1917) was a South African ichthyologist and zoologist. It is known that he was educated at the South African College in Cape Town between 1858 and 1863 and that he obtained a post on the ci ...

with the type locality given as the

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...

coast. In 1931

J.L.B. Smith James Leonard Brierley Smith (26 September 1897 – 8 January 1968) was a South African ichthyologist, organic chemist, and university professor. He was the first to identify a taxidermied fish as a coelacanth, at the time thought to be long ext ...

transferred the stone bream into the monospecific genus ''Neoscorpis''.

Human interaction

The stone-bream does not contain any known threat to humans. They are fished mainly in the African regions for recreational purposes. Although they are caught recreationally, they are not overfished. Only those with special permits are allowed to catch them. Sale of the stone bream by recreational fishers is illegal in South Africa.

Conservation status

The status of the stone bream has not yet been evaluated by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

. It was listed as "least concern" in the 2018 National Biodiversity Assessment by the

South African National Biodiversity Institute The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) is an organisation tasked with research and dissemination of information on biodiversity, and legally mandated to contribute to the management of the country's biodiversity resources. ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2304026 Kyphosidae Taxa named by John Dow Fisher Gilchrist Taxa named by William Wardlaw Thompson Fish described in 1908