Fistularia tabacaria
Bluespotted Cornetfish
NS
GNR
Collection Details
Specimens
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Gasterosteiformes (Sticklebacks and relatives)
Fistulariidae (Cornetfishes)
Fistularia
Fistularia tabacaria (Bluespotted Cornetfish)
Description
This species account was compiled from
Composite (multiple sources) (McEachran, J.D. and J.D. Fechhelm. Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.)
and processed using AI-assisted text extraction.
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Characters
Slender, elongate, and slightly depressed, with an extremely prolonged snout and a forked tail bearing a long filament. Dorsal, lateral, and ventral ridges on snout are smooth in adults except for minute serrations on lateral snout ridges. Dorsal snout ridges are parallel. Postorbital ridge has slight serrations, and preorbital and posttemporal ridges are smooth. Interorbital width is 6% or less of snout length and is smoothly depressed. Pectoral fin has 15 or 16 rays. Dorsal fin is subtriangular, with pointed tip, and has 14 to 16 rays. Anal fin is similar in size and shape to dorsal fin and has 14 to 16 rays. Caudal fin lobes are equal in size to dorsal and anal fin lobes. Distance from operculum to pelvic fin origin is slightly less than 50% of distance between pelvic and anal fins. Body is naked in adults. Bony plates preceding dorsal and anal fins are absent. Trunk vertebrae number 53, with first 4 fused, and tail vertebrae number 34.
Color is brown dorsally and lighter ventrally, with series of pale blue spots on snout and along back.
Distribution
In the western Atlantic it occurs from Nova Scotia and Bermuda to Brazil, including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea
Habitat Associations
to 200 m
Generally associated with sea-grass beds and reefs
Biology
Maximum known size is 180 cm SL
A solitary species (Ref. 26340) occurs over grass flats and reefs, and on hard and rocky bottoms (Ref. 5377). Feeds on fishes, small crustaceans (Ref. 6557) or invertebrates.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2013-01-29. Resilience: Medium (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).
Phylogeny and Morphologically Similar Fishes
Distinguished from the other species of the family by the combination of characters described
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: minor commercial; gamefish.
References
Bohlke and Chaplin 1968
Fritzsche 1976
Hoese and Moore 1977
Uyeno et al. 1983
C. R. Robins et al. 1986
Boschung 1992
Randall, J.E. (1967) Food habits of reef fishes of the West Indies. Stud. Trop. Oceanogr. Miami 5:665-847.
Fritzsche, R.A. (1990) Fistulariidae. p. 654-655. 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.
Lieske, E. and R. Myers (1994) Collins Pocket Guide. Coral reef fishes. Indo-Pacific & Caribbean including the Red Sea. Haper Collins Publishers, 400 p.
Fritzsche, R.A. (1976) A review of the cornetfishes, genus Fistularia (Fistulariidae), with a discussion of intrageneric relationships and zoogeography. Bull. Mar. Sci. 26(2):196-204.
Smith, C.L. (1997) National Audubon Society field guide to tropical marine fishes of the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, the Bahamas, and Bermuda. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. 720 p.
Gómez-Canchong, P., L. Manjarrés M., L.O. Duarte and J. Altamar (2004) Atlas pesquero del area norte del Mar Caribe de Colombia. Universidad del Magadalena, Santa Marta. 230 p.
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.
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