''Parapercis alboguttata'', the bluenose grubfish, known also as the bluenose sandperch and whitespot sandsmelt, 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 ...

in 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 ...

Pinguipedidae The sandperches are a family, Pinguipedidae, of ray-finned fishes in the Percomorpha, percomorph Order (biology), order Labriformes. Sandperches are benthic fish which normally occur over sand or rubble Substrate (biology), substrates in shallow ...

, native to the western Indo-Pacific Ocean. It was first described by the German-born, British

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

and

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 ...

Albert Günther Albert Karl Ludwig Gotthilf Günther , also Albert Charles Lewis Gotthilf Günther (3October 18301February 1914), was a German-born British zoologist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. Günther is ranked the second-most productive reptile tax ...

, in 1872.

Description

The bluenose grubfish is a slender fish with a nearly cylindrical body at the front becoming flattened near the tail. It can grow to a length of about . The eyes are large and near the top of the head, and the mouth is broad with three pairs of canine teeth at the front of the lower jaw. The snout is pale blue with yellow diagonal streaks. The fins are mostly white; the dorsal fin has five spines, the third and fourth being the longest, and twenty-two soft rays; the pectoral fin has seventeen to nineteen soft rays and the anal fin has a single spine and nineteen soft rays. The body is reddish above, with the margins of the scales being golden brown, and fades to white on the belly. There are two longitudinal rows of faint pinkish spots along the side of the body and a pair of more distinct reddish spots on the

caudal peduncle Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only ...

Distribution and habitat

Native to the western tropical Indo-Pacific, the bluenose grubfish ranges from the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

, India and Malaya to northwestern Australia. It lives in shallow water over sand or shingle bottoms, often near reefs. Its maximum depth is about .

Biology

The bluenose grubfish is a bottom-dwelling

carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose nutrition and energy requirements are met by consumption of animal tissues (mainly mu ...

fish and rests on the seabed, propping itself up with its pelvic fins. It feeds on other

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 the Ancient Greek word (), meaning "the depths". ...

organisms, its diet mainly consisting of

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...

bony fish Osteichthyes ( ; ), also known as osteichthyans or commonly referred to as the bony fish, is a Biodiversity, diverse clade of vertebrate animals that have endoskeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondricht ...

and gastropod molluscs, with smaller quantities of polychaete worms, shrimp larvae and

hermit crab Hermit crabs are anomuran Decapoda, decapod crustaceans of the superfamily (taxonomy), superfamily Paguroidea that have adapted to occupy empty scavenged mollusc shells to protect their fragile exoskeletons. There are over 800 species of hermit c ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q933353 alboguttata Fish described in 1872 Taxa named by Albert Günther