Schultzea beta
School Bass
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri)
Serranidae (Sea Basses and Groupers)
Schultzea
Schultzea beta (School Bass)
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.
It may contain errors in spelling, punctuation, or formatting.
When citing, please reference the original source rather than this page.
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Characters
Elongate body; protrusible mouth lacking teeth; anterior and posterior nares moderately separated; maxilla extends to middle of eye; preoperculum angular and serrated; opercular spines closely spaced; 6 branchiostegal rays; 29-39 gill rakers on first arch; head length 30%-33% SL; snout length 7%-8% SL; eye diameter 9%-11% SL; body depth 21%-24% SL; pectoral fin truncate with 15-17 rays; dorsal fin notched with 10 spines and 11-13 rays; anal fin with 6-8 rays; caudal fin shallowly forked; ctenoid scales extending to posterior margin of head; 25-30 scales around caudal peduncle; 48-56 pored lateral line scales; 24 vertebrae (10 precaudal, 14 caudal)
Reddish brown dorsally with dark reddish brown mottling; irregular white blotches with reddish brown mottling ventrally; rusty bar under eye; dusky crescent marking on caudal fin lobes
Distribution
Western Atlantic from the Carolinas and the Bahamas to northern South America, including the eastern and southern Gulf of Mexico and the Antilles
Eastern and southern Gulf of Mexico
Habitat Associations
Between 21 and 170 m depth
Near coral patches, within a meter of the bottom
Biology
Zooplankton, including copepods, ostracods, crab megalops, and bivalve and gastropod veligers
About 100 mm SL
Thought to be a simultaneous hermaphrodite
Occurs in deeper waters around coral reefs. Forms small groups to feed on plankton (Ref. 9710). Synchronously hermaphroditic.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2012-08-23. Resilience: High (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).
References
Longley and Hildebrand 1940
Longley and Hildebrand 1941 (as Serranus beta)
Woods 1958 (as Schultzea campechanus)
Robins and Stark 1961
Böhlke and Chaplin 1968
Randall 1968a
Randall 1996
Davis and Birdsong 1973
Darcy and Gutherz 1984
Robins and Ray 1986
Johnson and Smith-Vaniz 1987
Heemstra 2002c
Robins, C.R. and G.C. Ray (1986) A field guide to Atlantic coast fishes of North America. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, U.S.A. 354 p.
Lieske, E. and R. Myers (1994) Collins Pocket Guide. Coral reef fishes. Indo-Pacific & Caribbean including the Red Sea. Haper Collins Publishers, 400 p.
Randall, J.E. (1996) Caribbean reef fishes. Third Edition - revised and enlarged. T.F.H. Publications, Inc. Ltd., Hong Kong. 3nd ed. 368 p.
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