This glossary of ichthyology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in ichthyology, the study of fishes. [1]
Fish anatomy is the study of the form or morphology of fish. It can be contrasted with fish physiology, which is the study of how the component parts of fish function together in the living fish. In practice, fish anatomy and fish physiology complement each other, the former dealing with the structure of a fish, its organs or component parts and how they are put together, such as might be observed on the dissecting table or under the microscope, and the latter dealing with how those components function together in living fish.
The Zeidae are a family of large, showy, deep-bodied zeiform marine fish—the "true dories". Found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, the family contains just six species in two genera. All species are important and highly regarded food fish supporting commercial fisheries, and some—such as the John Dory —are enjoyed in large public aquaria. These fish are caught primarily by deep-sea trawling.
The Percophidae, duckbills, are a family of percomorph fishes, from the order Trachiniformes, found in tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and in the southwestern and southeastern Pacific.
The greenback flounder is a righteye flounder of the genus Rhombosolea, found around southern Australia and New Zealand.
Breitensteinia is a genus of catfishes of the family Akysidae. It includes three species.
Acrochordonichthys is a genus of catfishes of the family Akysidae. It includes ten species.
The blob sculpin is a species of deep-sea fish of the family Psychrolutidae. It feeds mainly on crustaceans, molluscs, and sea pens.
The smallmouth scad, is a species of tropical marine fish in the jack family Carangidae. The species is endemic to northern Australia, inhabiting primarily inshore waters. It is similar to other scads in the genus Alepes, and is distinguished by a well-developed posterior adipose eyelid, as well as fin membrane spotting and gill raker counts. It is not a large species, with the maximum length reported to be 29.5 cm. It feeds primarily on a variety of small invertebrates, and is of very minor economic importance.
Tristichopterus, with a maximum length of sixty centimetres, is the smallest genus in the family of prehistoric lobe-finned fish, Tristichopteridae that was believed to have originated in the north and dispersed throughout the course of the Upper Devonian into Gondwana. Tristichopterus currently has only one named species, first described by Egerton in 1861. The Tristichopterus node is thought to have originated during the Givetian part of the Devonian. Tristichopterus was thought by Egerton to be unique for its time period as a fish with ossified vertebral centers, breaking the persistent notochord rule of most Devonian fish but this was later reinspected and shown to be only partial ossification by Dr. R. H. Traquair. Tristichopterus alatus closely resembles Eusthenopteron and this sparked some debate after its discovery as to whether it was a separate taxon.
The shadow trevally, also known as the shadow kingfish, twothread trevally or Aldabra trevally, is a species of inshore marine fish in the jack family Carangidae. The species is patchily distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian and west Pacific Oceans, from South Africa in the west to Japan and Samoa in the east, reaching as far south as Indonesia and New Caledonia. It is most easily distinguished from similar species by as series of dark rectangular blotches under the second dorsal fin, giving a 'shadowed' appearance, from which its common name is derived. The shadow trevally is a reasonably large fish, growing to 85 cm in length and at least 2.6 kg in weight. It inhabits shallow coastal waters, including reefs, bays, and estuaries, where it takes small fish and benthic crustaceans as prey. Nothing is known of the species' ecology and reproductive biology. It is of little importance to fisheries, and is occasionally taken by bottom trawls and other artisanal fishing gear.
Synodontis lucipinnis is a species of upside-down catfish endemic to Zambia, where it is only known from the Musende Rocks area (Mpulungu) of Lake Tanganyika. It was first described by Jeremy John Wright and Lawrence M. Page in 2006. The species name "lucipinnis" is derived from a combination of the Latin luci, meaning bright or clear, and the Latin pinnis, meaning fin. This refers to the light coloration in a patch on the base of the fins of this species.
Gobioclinus gobio is a strictly marine ray finned fish, also called Gobioclinus gobio. Its common name is the palehead blenny, and is sometimes referred to as the goggle-eye blenny. It can be identified by its greenish top, red belly, and multicolored banding. L. gobio is a benthic organism with a wide range, taking up residence in a number of coastal environments from Florida to Brazil. This means the fish can live in equatorial, subtropical, and tropical climatic zones. It is native to coastal areas of the Caribbean. Its diet consists mainly of different molluscs and echinoderms.
Nemipterus isacanthus, the teardrop threadfin bream or twinlined threadfin bream, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Nemipteridae, the threadfin and whiptail breams. This fish is found in the western Pacific Ocean.
Gymnotus choco, commonly known as the cuchillo, is an electric knifefish. G. choco is distinguished from its cogenerate species group by a color pattern possessing pale yellow bands oriented obliquely, wherein the interband margins are wavy or even irregular; one to three Y-shaped dark bands occur on its body's posterior section; and its pale bands do not extend above the fish's lateral line on its body's anterior two-thirds. G. choco is most similar to G. paraguensis from the Pantanal in Brazil and Paraguay. From the latter, it is distinguished by having a narrower mouth, a more cylindrical body, and a longer preanal distance.
Astyanax microschemos is a species of characid fish from Brazil. It belongs to the A. scabripinnis species complex and differs from other species outside it by having a lower number of branched anal fin rays and its shallow body depth being about 26.9-29.7 vs more than 35% of its standard length (SL). Compared to species of its own complex, it can be distinguished by the combination of its shallow body depth, and smaller interorbital width. The species name comes from the Greek mikroschemos, meaning "low stature", which refers to the shallow body depth of the animal.
Deuterodon pelecus is a species of characid fish from Brazil. It can be distinguished from other species by: its body depth ; its short and pointed snout smaller than the orbital diameter; and a reduced number of branched anal fin rays. D. pelecus also differs from members of its genus by its characteristic color pattern. It possesses a single humeral spot that is constricted to the region above the lateral line; at the same time it shows a conspicuous midlateral body stripe from opercle to the caudal fin base, an autapomorphy of this precise species. Other Deuterodon species have a humeral spot that is vertically or horizontally elongate and have the midlateral stripe becoming faint near that humeral spot. The species name is derived from the Greek pelekus, meaning "axe", referring to the pigmentation shape resulting from the adjoinment of the humeral spot with the midlateral stripe.
Asterolepis is an extinct genus of antiarch placoderms from the Devonian of North and South America and Europe. They were heavily armored flat-headed benthic detritivores with distinctive jointed limb-like pectoral fins and hollow spine. The armor plate gives the Asterolepis a box-like shape. Its pectoral fins are also armored but the caudal and dorsal fin are not. The first fossils were named by M. Eichwald in 1840 after noticing star-like markings on the fossils.
Ogcocephalus porrectus, the rosy-lipped batfish, is endemic to Cocos Island off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Though members of Ogcocephalidae occur in tropical, warm waters in both the Western Atlantic and Eastern Pacific. Rosy-lipped batfish generally reside in shallow to deep water benthic zones with a bathymetric range of 35 – 150 m. The syntypic series was collected at 120 m on a rocky bottom. What makes this fish distinctive are its rosy red lips, specialized pectoral fins used for "walking", and an illicium used for attracting prey.
Trachurus delagoa, the African scad, is a species of jack mackerel from the family Carangidae which is found in the south western Indian Ocean.
Archolaemus luciae is a species of glass knifefish endemic to Brazil where it is found in the Rio Jari, the Rio Trombetas and the Rio Tapajós basins in the eastern Amazon. Also found in the Rio Araguari. This species reaches a length of 49.7 cm (19.6 in).