Hoplostethus occidentalis
No common name
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Beryciformes
Trachichthyidae (Roughies)
Hoplostethus
Hoplostethus occidentalis
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
Oval shaped, deep bodied, and compressed, with high ridges on head; bones of head very rugose with minute spines; skin covering deep cavernous channels thin and contains many pores; nasal bone has short spine; jaw teeth arranged in bands and minute; vomerine teeth absent in adults; palatine teeth present; preopercular spines short, triangular, and extend to or just beyond opercular bones; operculum has low denticulated ridge but no spine; posttemporal bone has strong ridge and associated large spine; gill rakers on first arch long and number 18 to 22; head length 39.8% to 43%, snout length 8.3% to 10.9%, eye diameter 13% to 16.3%, interorbital width 11.7% to 14.5%, body depth 47.2% to 53.9%, pectoral fin length 24.2% to 33.5%, and pelvic fin length 19.3% to 27.4% of SL; pectoral fin has strongly oblique base and 14 to 18 rays; dorsal fin has four to seven rather weak striated spines and 12 to 14 rays; anal fin has two or three increasingly longer spines and 8 to 10 rays; body and cheek covered with adherent scales possessing several rows of spinules; lateral line scales enlarged, more than 3 times broader in dorsoventral plane than in anteroposterior plane; vertebrae number 26.
Head and body light grayish tan to yellowish or reddish tan, and back darker in preserved specimens.
Distribution
Western Atlantic from the east coast of Florida to the Guianas, including the northern Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
Northern Gulf of Mexico
Habitat Associations
Between 124 and 549 m depth
Biology
Food consists of small shrimps.
Maximum known size is 173 mm SL.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2018-10-09. Resilience: Very low (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).
Phylogeny and Morphologically Similar Fishes
Distinguished from other species of the family by the combination of characters described.
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: of no interest.
References
Woods and Sonoda 1973
Uyeno et al. 1983
Boschung 1992
Kotlyar, A.N. (1986) Systematics and distribution of species of the genus Hoplostethus Cuvier (Beryciformes, Trachichthyidae). Trudy Inst. Okeanol. 121:97-140.
Aliño, P.M., L.T. McManus, J.W. McManus, C. Nañola, M.D. Fortes, G.C. Trono and G.S. Jacinto (1993) Initial parameter estimations of a coral reef flat ecosystem in Bolinao, Pangasinan, Northwestern Philippines. p. 252-258. In D. Pauly and V. Christensen (eds.) Trophic models of aquatic ecosystems. ICLARM Conf. Proc. 26.
Uyeno, T., K. Matsuura and E. Fujii (eds.) (1983) Fishes trawled off Suriname and French Guiana. Japan Marine Fishery Resource Research Center, Tokyo, Japan. 519 p.
Cohen, D.M., A.W. Ebeling, T. Iwamoto, S.B. McDowell, N.B. Marshall, D.E. Rosen, P. Sonoda, W.H. Weed III and L.P. Woods (1973) Fishes of the western North Atlantic. Part six. New Haven, Sears Found. Mar. Res., Yale Univ.
Comments On Hoplostethus occidentalis