Common ponyfish

📖 Overview

Found in river mouths and muddy inshore areas , often in mangrove areas . Adults are coastal inhabitants found on soft bottoms, usually between depths of 10-70 meters. Juveniles are commonly found in mangrove estuaries and tidal creeks, sometimes entering the lower reaches of freshwater streams . Adults move in schools. Frequently ascend into freshwater reaches of rivers . Active by day . Feed on polychaetes, small crustaceans, small fishes and worms . Important food fish in the tropics . Caught near the bottom with bottom trawls, set nets, push nets, dip nets, and beach seines. In Indian waters, schools near the surface during April-May when caught with drift gill nets. Larger specimens sorted for human consumption and marketed fresh or dried-salted, but surplus fish used to feed ducks, converted to fishmeal, or discarded .

🔬 Taxonomy

🐟 Physical Description

Dorsal spines (total): 8; Dorsal soft rays (total): 15 - 16; Anal spines: 3; Anal soft rays: 14 - 15. This species is distinguished by the following characters: body very deep, compressed, with a strongly humped back; body depth 1.7-1.9 times in standard length; mouth pointing downward when protracted; gill rakers short and fleshy, less than 1/2 length of corresponding gill lamellae, total gill rakers on first gill arch 18-22; head and breast scaleless; tubed scales on lateral line 61-66. Colour of adults, back greyish, belly silvery and many parallel close-set faint bars on back; usually a dark brown saddle on caudal peduncle; axil of pectoral fins grey to black; margin of soft dorsal fin black; both caudal-fin lobes with broad dusky margins; pectoral, pelvic, and anal fins colourless to yellowish. In juveniles (5-7 cm TL), thin, closely arranged, grey vertical lines descending from back to about midheight; membrane between anal-fin spines conspicuously yellow; posterior margin of caudal-fin lobes pale yellow and dusky; other fins hyaline; snout dotted black .: short and / or deep; Cross section: compressed.

🌀 Behaviour

Behavioural data for Common ponyfish is currently being reviewed.

🦐 Diet

🥚 Reproduction

🌍 Habitat & Distribution

Marine; freshwater; brackish; demersal; amphidromous; depth range 10 - 110 m . Tropical; 26°C - 29°C ; 31°N - 34°S, 27°E - 170°W West Pacific: Red Sea, Persian Gulf and East Africa (including Reunion, Comoros, Seychelles, Madagascar and Mauritius) to Fiji, north to the Ryukyu Islands, south to Australia.

🌿 Ecology

📐 Morphometrics

🌡️ Water Parameters & Tolerance

🛡️ Conservation Assessment

📊 Population Risk & Fisheries

🐠 Related Species

🔍 Similar Species

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