Platax teira
No common name
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri)
Ephippidae (Spadefishes)
Platax
Platax teira
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: short and / or deep. Ocular band of adult specimens uniformly dark (Ref. 5327). Yellowish silvery or dusky, with a black (or dusky) bar through eye and another dark bar from dorsal-fin origin across rear edge of operculum and pectoral-fin base to belly, where it usually encloses a black blotch, with another smaller black vertical streak often present at origin of anal fin. Median fins dusky yellow, with black margins posteriorly. Pelvic fins yellow, dusky yellow or blackish. Body orbicular and strongly compressed, its depth more than twice length of head and 0.9 to 1.2 times SL. Head length 2.7 to 3.5 times in SL. Large adults (above 35 cm standard length) with bony hump from top of head to interorbital region, the front head profile almost vertical. Interorbital width 42 to 50% head length. Jaws with bands of slender, flattened, tricuspid teeth, the middle cusp slightly longer than lateral cusps. Vomer with a few teeth, but none on palatines. Five pores on each side of lower jaw. Preopercle smooth. Opercle without spines (Ref 43039). Striking features: none.
Distribution
Indo-West Pacific: Red Sea and East Africa to Papua New Guinea, north to the Ryukyu Islands, south to Australia. Recorded in Bay of Islands, New Zealand (Ref. 35942). Also reported from Persian Gulf (Ref. 68964).
Habitat Associations
Marine. reef-associated. depth range 3-25 m. Found in: estuaries, mangroves, coral reefs.
Biology
Large adults live in sheltered bays as well as deep offshore. Commonly found around shipwrecks in small groups and occasionally forms large schools. Small juveniles with floating debris and form aggregations as they find each other. They can be pelagic to large sizes and form schools under large Sargassum rafts that usually form after the wet season (Ref. 48637). Juveniles inhabit shallow protected inner reefs while adults occur in lagoon and seaward reefs to a depth of 20 m or more. Edible but not esteemed (Ref. 12484). Not an important game fish (Ref. 12484).
Max length: 70.0 cm TL.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2018-10-12. Resilience: Low (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: minor commercial; gamefish; aquarium: commercial.
References
Myers, R.F. (1991) Micronesian reef fishes. Second Ed. Coral Graphics, Barrigada, Guam. 298 p.
Randall, J.E., G.R. Allen and R.C. Steene (1990) Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, Hawaii. 506 p.
Masuda, H. and G.R. Allen (1993) Meeresfische der Welt - Groß-Indopazifische Region. Tetra Verlag, Herrenteich, Melle. 528 p.
Randall, J.E. (1995) Coastal fishes of Oman. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, Hawaii. 439 p.
Heemstra, P.C. (2001) Ephippidae. Spadefishes (batfishes). p. 3611-3622. In K.E. Carpenter and V. Niem (eds.) FAO species identification guide for fishery purposes. The living marine resources of the Western Central Pacific. Vol. 6. Bony fishes part 4 (Labridae to Latimeriidae), estuarine crocodiles. FAO, Rome.
Allen, G.R. and M.V. Erdmann (2012) Reef fishes of the East Indies. Perth, Australia: Universitiy of Hawai'i Press, Volumes I-III. Tropical Reef Research.
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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