The Drysdale grunter (''Syncomistes rastellus'') is a species of
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% ...
in the family
Terapontidae
Grunters or tigerperches are ray-finned fishes in the family Terapontidae (also spelled Teraponidae, Theraponidae or Therapontidae). This family is part of the superfamily Percoidea of the order Perciformes.
Characteristics
The Terapontidae is ...
. It is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...
to
Australia, where it occurs in the
Gibb and
Drysdale Rivers, coastal rivers in northern
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...
.
It is a herbivorous species which grazes on filamentous algae and prefers the main river channels rather than the tributaries, it also prefers flowing water of varying turbidity and substrate.
References
Drysdale grunter
Endemic fauna of Australia
Freshwater fish of Western Australia
Drysdale grunter
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
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