Bembrops heterurus
No common name
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
There are no photos available for this taxon yet.
Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri)
Percophidae (Flatheads)
Bembrops
Bembrops heterurus
Description
This species account was compiled from
FishBase (Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2025. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version 04/2025.)
and processed using AI-assisted text extraction.
It may contain errors in spelling, punctuation, or formatting.
When citing, please reference the original source rather than this page.
Learn more about our species accounts.
Characters
Body shape: elongated. Color in alcohol light yellowish to yellowish brown dorsally, light yellowish brown to creamy brown ventrally. Upper lobe of caudal fin elongated at an acute angle. Snout relatively short, 1.0-1.4x eye diameter. Scales on lateral and dorsal surfaces of snout including area in front of eye. Upper jaw extending behind anterior margin of eye but not reaching its mid-line. Maxillary tentacle short. Lateral line descending gradually along dorsal edge of pectoral fin, separated from origin of first dorsal fin by 4 or 5 rows of scales, from origin of anal fin by 6 or 7, and from insertion of anal fin by 3-5. Pectoral fin moderately rounded. Lower lobe truncate or rounded (Ref 13203).
Distribution
Western Atlantic: off Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Uruguay. Eastern Atlantic: Mauritania to the extreme northern waters of Namibia (Ref. 6948, 27121). The eastern Atlantic form referred to as Bembrops heterurus is unlikely to be conspecific with the Brazilian form, thus further taxonomic study is needed to clarify this situation (Ref. 6948).
Habitat Associations
Marine. demersal. depth range 50-400 m.
Biology
Found on soft bottoms of the continental shelf and feeds on crustaceans and fishes (Ref. 3656).
Max length: 28.0 cm TL; common length: 20.0 cm TL.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2014-08-13.
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: commercial.
References
Knapp, L.W. (1981) Percophidae. In W. Fischer, G. Bianchi and W.B. Scott (eds.) FAO species identification sheets for fishery purposes. Eastern Central Atlantic; fishing areas 34, 47 (in part). Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and FAO. Vol. 3. pag. var.
Knapp, L.W. (1990) Percophididae. p. 896. In J.C. Quero, J.C. Hureau, C. Karrer, A. Post and L. Saldanha (eds.) Check-list of the fishes of the eastern tropical Atlantic (CLOFETA). JNICT, Lisbon, SEI, Paris; and UNESCO, Paris. Vol. 2.
Das, M.K. and J.S. Nelson (1996) Revision of the percophid genus Bembrops (Actinopterygii: Perciformes). Bull. Mar. Sci. 59(1):9-44.
Muto, E.Y., M.H.C. da Silva, G.R. Vera, S.S.M. Leite, D.G. Navarro and C.L.D.B. Rossi-Wongtschowski (2005) Alimentaçao e relações tróficas de peixes demersais da plataforma continental externa e talude superior da Região Sudeste-Sul do Brasil. São Paulo: Intituto Oceanográfico USP.
Patzner, R.A. (2008) Reproductive strategies of fish. pp. 311-350. In Rocha, M.J., A. Arukwe and B.G. Kapoor (eds). Fish reproduction: cytology, biology and ecology. Science Publisher, Inc. Oxford. 631 p.
Comments On Bembrops heterurus