Pristigenys Serrula
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The popeye catalufa (''Pristigenys serrula''), also known as the bigeye soldierfish, 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 ...
Priacanthidae The Priacanthidae, the bigeyes, are a Family (biology), family of 18 species of marine ray-finned fishes. "Catalufa (disambiguation), Catalufa" is an alternate common name for some members of the Priacanthidae. The etymology of the scientific ...
, the bigeyes. This fish has an overall dusky orange to red colour with white markings. The
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 ...
appears feathery while rest of fins have black margins. It occurs in the eastern
Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...
, where it is found from
Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
to Chile. It occasionally makes its way into the aquarium trade. It grows to a size of in length. This species is nocturnal and shy, preferring deeper waters off islands. It has been recorded associating with squirrelfishes and
cardinalfishes Cardinalfishes are a family, Apogonidae, of ray-finned fishes found in the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Indian, and Pacific Ocean, Pacific Oceans; they are chiefly marine, but some species are found in brackish water and a few (notably ...
but the popeye catalufa goes as deep as , deeper than its associated species. This species has been recorded from rocky habitats at depths of less than to over . It is a carnivorous species and, when kept in captivity, is known to feed on worms,
crustaceans Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of Arthropod, arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquat ...
and
brittle stars Brittle stars, serpent stars, or ophiuroids (; ; referring to the serpent-like arms of the brittle star) are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea, closely related to starfish. They crawl across the sea floor using their flexible arms for locomot ...
.


Geographic range

''Pristigenys serrula'' is found as an unfragmented population all the way from
Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
to
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
, and even the
Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands () are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around the equator, west of the mainland of South America. They form the Galápagos Province of the Republic of Ecuador, with a population of sli ...
and
Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
. Oregon sightings are the extremities of the range and most of the population density is along the coast of
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
and
Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...
. These fishes extend into temperate regions in association with warm ocean currents although there has not been observations of this family in other typical temperate species.  Locations such as
New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
or the
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...
which are typical of the fishes that follow these currents.


Habitat

The family of Pristigenys are an epibenthic group that are found in rocky or coral environments around depths from 5 to 400 m and have been observed in some caves within its geographic range. This is only true of the adults of this family, as the eggs, larvae, and juvenile stages are found in open water and stay near the middle of the water column until they mature.


Physical description

''P. serulla'' have been observed to grow to , but most often are around 20 cm . The body of the fish is compressiform, deep and robust, with large eyes that are around a third of the length of the head. The species has an upward projecting mouth. The most noticeable trait that gets this fish aquarium attention is its bright red iris, body, and darkly detailed tail and fins. ''P. serrula''’s preopercular and preorbital margins serrate. The gill rakers present are short with 16 rakers on the horizontal limb of the outer arch. The dorsal fin has 10–11 rays, and pectoral rays numbering from 17–18. The dorsal fin is continuous for this species along with the anal fin containing 10 to 11 soft rays. This species also has very small ctenoid scales and lateral line scales 42 to 51. There is a tall, dorsal spine with the first and last spines being much shorter and equaling the rays in length. The spines on the anal fin are similar but much shorter.  The pectoral fins are the smallest fins and barely reach the pelvic fins. The pelvic fins are elongated and about the same length as the anal fin. Pelvic fins spines are long enough to reach the base of the second anal spine. Some unique textures of the respective fins are that the dorsal and anal fins are covered in a sheath and also that the vertical fins are dusky with the soft parts being slightly speckled. The ventricles are black and the pectorals pale. All spines of the fish roughly serrate. The species’s gular, maxillary, mandible, and branchiostegal membranes are coated with spiny scales. The colors of ''P. serulla'' are of light olive tones, striped with four laterally darkened striations which are wider than the between spaces. The last striation is located on the base of the caudal peduncle. The caudal peduncle of this species is remarkably longer than others in this family.


Development

The eggs, larvae and early juvenile stages of the priacanthid species are pelagic, remaining only in the middle of the water column while they mature. Once they have sufficiently grown and found a habitat to settle in, they transform into fully matured crevice and reef dwelling epibenthic fishes. The development of this fish involves 4 different stages: the larval stage, the preflexion stage, the postflextion stage, and the fully developed adult form transformation. In the preflexion stage the pigmentation starts to appear on the top of the head and underneath the mouth. In the time from flexion to post-flexion the pigmentation has spread to the lower part of the supraoccipital spine, increased on the head, increased on the gut, and begun to make its way to the caudal fin. By the transformation stage the fish is fully pigmented except on its caudal tail.


Reproduction

Reproduction of some ''Pristigengys'' and ''Priacanthus'' species show the eggs being small, spherical, and planktonic from which small larvae hatch with a yolk sac, unpigmented eyes, and undeveloped mouth. These fishes let groups of their eggs out into the open water for scattering and don’t show parental care for their eggs. The spawning season for this species has been estimated to occur from between August and December as this is when the larvae are primarily spotted.


Lifespan

The lifespan of this specific species of fish is not yet supported by much or any data. Although, large specimens have been examined by Fitch and Schultz were estimated to be around 9 or more years old. In another case, a specimen of ''P. serrula'' that was in length was estimated to be about 15 years old using otoliths.Grove, J.S. and R.J. Lavenberg, 1997. The fishes of the Galápagos Islands. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 863 p.


Behavior

''Pristigenys'' are reef and crevice dwelling marine fish that can be found swimming above the sediment layer at the bottom of the ocean at almost all hours of the day near holes in the sediment. These fish are carnivorous and nocturnal feeders but some have been observed feeding diurnally in cave habitats. Any of the feeding ''P. serrula'' does during the day is highly opportunistic. Caldwell and Bullis writes their observations of an aquarium specimen of priacanthids appearing to sleep at night contrary to the wild fishes of this family foraging and feeding at night. Another important behavioral trait of this family of fishes is that they have been shown to produce sound and possibly receive it from one another.


Food habits

Species of priacanthids feed on a diet of crustaceans, small cephalopods, polychaetes, and small fishes. These fish are most often found to be the predators of some smaller macrofauna, especially crabs. Other creatures they prey on include
octopuses An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed Mollusca, mollusc of the order (biology), order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, ...
, pelagic shrimp, stomatopods, small fish and polychaetes.


Predation

Data pinpointing the specific predators of ''P. serrula'' is not very clear but another species, ''Priacanthus japonicus'', belonging to the same family have been found in the stomach of yellowfin tuna along with being parasitized by the copepod ''Caligus cookeoli''.Ho, J.S. & C.L. Lin. "Three More Unrecorded Sea Lice (Copepoda, Caligidae) Parasitic on Marine Fishes Collected off Tai-Dong, Taiwan." Crustaceana (Leiden) 83, no. 101261-1277. (2010): (10):1261-1277.


References

* Allen, G., Robertson, R., Rivera, R., Lea, B. 2010. Pristigenys serrula. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010: e.T178102A7487832. * Caldwell, David K., and Harvey R. Bullis. "An Unusually Large Aggregation of Prejuvenile Bigeyes, Priacanthus Arenatus, in the West Indies." Copeia 1971, no. 1 (1971): 176–176. https://doi.org/10.2307/1441625. * Carnevale, Giorgio, G. David Johnson, Giuseppe Marramà, and Alexandre F. Bannikov. "A Reappraisal of the Eocene Priacanthid Fish Pristigenys Substriata (Blainville, 1818) from Monte Bolca, Italy." Journal of Paleontology 91, no. 3 (May 2017): 554–65. https://doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2017.19. * Fitch, J.E. & Schultz, S.A. (1978) Some rare and unusual occurrences of fishes off California and Baja California. California Fish and Game, 64(2), 74–92 * Gilbert, C. H. 1891. United States National Museum., Smithsonian Institution., and United States. Department of the Interior. Proceedings of the United States National Museum. Vol. v.13=no.790-841 (1890). Washington : Smithsonian Institution Press,
tc. TC, T.C., Tc, Tc, tc, tC, or .tc may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * Theodore "T.C." Calvin, a character on the TV series '' Magnum, P.I.'' and its reboot * Tom Caron, American television host for New England Sports Netw ...
1890. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/53445. * Grove, J.S. and R.J. Lavenberg, 1997. The fishes of the Galápagos Islands. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 863 p. * Ho, J.S. & C.L. Lin. "Three More Unrecorded Sea Lice (Copepoda, Caligidae) Parasitic on Marine Fishes Collected off Tai-Dong, Taiwan." Crustaceana (Leiden) 83, no. 101261-1277. (2010): (10):1261-1277. * Jiménez Prado, P. and P. Béarez. 2004. Peces Marinos del Ecuador continental. Tomo 2: Guía de Especies / Marine fishes of continental Ecuador. Volume 2: Species Guide. SIMBIOE/NAZCA/IFEA. * Starnes, Wayne C. "Revision, Phylogeny and Biogeographic Comments on the Circumtropical Marine Percoid Fish Family Priacanthidae." BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE 43 (1988): 87 v. 43 (no.2): 117–203. * Watson, W., 1996. Priacanthidae: catalufas, bigeyes. p. 900–903. In H.G. Moser (ed.) The early stages of fishes in the California Current Region. California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) Atlas No. 33. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 1505 p. *Starnes, W.C., 1988. "Revision, phylogeny and biogeographic comments on the circumtropical marine percoid fish family Priacanthidae." Bull. Mar. Sci. 43(2):117–203. {{Taxonbar, from=Q2459210 Popeye catalufa Taxa named by Charles Henry Gilbert Fish described in 1891