Nealotus tripes
Black Snake Mackerel
NS
G5
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri)
Gempylidae (Snake Mackerels)
Nealotus
Nealotus tripes (Black Snake Mackerel)
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
Elongate, slender, and compressed body; minute pelvic fin; 2 free anal fin spines; single straight lateral line; head moderately elevated from tip of snout to dorsal fin origin; anterior naris midway between tip of snout and anterior margin of eye; lower jaw projects beyond upper jaw; maxilla exposed when mouth is closed; upper jaw with 0-3 depressible fangs and 3 fixed fangs near symphysis; lower jaw with a single fang on side of symphysis; vomer lacks teeth; palatine with a row of small teeth; numerous short, spinelike gill rakers on first gill arch; measurements (% SL): head length 25%-27%, body depth 11%-14%; pectoral fin with 13 or 14 rays; first dorsal fin with 20 or 21 spines; second dorsal fin with 16 to 19 rays; pelvic fin with 1 small spine; anal fin with 2 free spines and 15 to 19 rays; vertebrae number 36 to 38 (21 or 22 precaudal and 15 or 16 caudal); body covered with large deciduous scales
Blackish brown, with dorsal and anal fins pale brown
Distribution
Nova Scotia and the Grand Banks to southern Brazil, including the southern Gulf of Mexico
Southern Gulf of Mexico
Habitat Associations
Tropical to warm temperate seas between 100 and 600 m; migrates to the surface at night
Biology
Squids, crustaceans, and ray-finned fishes such as myctophids
Maximum known size is 250 mm SL
Maturity is reached at about 150 mm SL
Oceanic, epipelagic to mesopelagic (Ref. 47377), migrating to the surface at night (Ref. 6181). Feeds on myctophids and other small fishes, squid and crustaceans (Ref. 6181). Matures at 15 cm SL (Ref. 36731).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2012-08-22. Resilience: Medium (Assuming tmax>3).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: subsistence fisheries.
References
Grey 1953
Backus et al. 1965
Fujii 1983e
Robins and Ray 1986
Scott and Scott 1988
Nakamura and Parin 1993
Nakamura and Parin 2001b
Parin et al. 2002a
Scott, W.B. and M.G. Scott (1988) Atlantic fishes of Canada. Can. Bull. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 219:731 p.
Nakamura, I. and N.V. Parin (1993) FAO Species Catalogue. Vol. 15. Snake mackerels and cutlassfishes of the world (families Gempylidae and Trichiuridae). An annotated and illustrated catalogue of the snake mackerels, snoeks, escolars, gemfishes, sackfishes, domine, oilfish, cutlassfishes,. scabbardfishes, hairtails, and frostfishes known to date. FAO Fish. Synop. 125(15):136 p.
Grove, J.S. and R.J. Lavenberg (1997) The fishes of the Galápagos Islands. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 863 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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