Harpadon nehereus
No common name
Collection Details
Specimens
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Aulopiformes
Synodontidae (Lizardfishes)
Harpadon
Harpadon nehereus
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.)
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Characters
Body shape: elongated. Scales restricted to posterior half of the body. Posterior tip of pectoral fin reaching origin of pelvic fin.
Distribution
Indo-West Pacific: Somalia to Papua New Guinea, north to Japan and south to Indonesia.
Habitat Associations
Brackish, marine. benthopelagic. Found in: estuaries.
Biology
Inhabit deep water offshore on sandy mud bottom for most of the year, but also gathers in large shoals in deltas of rivers to feed during monsoons (Ref. 9987, 11230). Spawn 6 batches of broods per year (Ref. 43449). An aggressive predator (Ref. 9987). Primarily caught along Maharashtra with the bag-net, better known as 'dol' net. Operation of this gear is timed to a strong tidal current. The bag with the mouth set against the current strains the fish which is being retained therein by the strength of the current. The net is thus retrieved before the tide turns. Very phosphorescent. Excellent food fish. Marketed fresh and dried or salted; consumed pan-fried (Ref. 9987).
Max length: 61.0 cm TL; common length: 25.0 cm TL.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none.
IUCN Red List Status: Near Threatened (NT), assessed 2018-06-28. Resilience: High (K=0.18-0.9; Fec=89,600).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: highly commercial.
References
Thresher, R.E. (1984) Reproduction in reef fishes. T.F.H. Publications, Inc. Ltd., Neptune City, New Jersey. 399 p.
Masuda, H., K. Amaoka, C. Araga, T. Uyeno and T. Yoshino (1984) The fishes of the Japanese Archipelago. Vol. 1. Tokai University Press, Tokyo, Japan. 437 p. (text).
Whitehead, P.J.P. (1984) Harpadontidae. In W. Fischer and G. Bianchi (eds.) FAO species identification sheets for fishery purposes. Western Indian Ocean fishing area 51. Vol. 2. [pag. var.]. FAO, Rome.
Frimodt, C. (1995) Multilingual illustrated guide to the world's commercial warmwater fish. Fishing News Books, Osney Mead, Oxford, England. 215 p.
Nakabo, T. (2002) Fishes of Japan with pictorial keys to the species, English edition I. Tokai University Press, Japan, pp v-866.
Fernandez, I. and M. Devaraj (1996) Dynamics of the Bombay duck (Harpodon nehereus) stock along the northwest coast of India. Indian J. Fish. 43(1):1-11.
Kang, D., A. Bakkun, L. Lin and D. Pauly (2021) The increase of a hypoxia-tolerant fish, the Bombay duck (Harpadon nehereus) as a result of ocean deoxygenation off southwestern China. Environ. Biol. Fishes 105:1399-1403. DOI: 10.1007/s10641-021-01130-7
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