Southern school whiting

📖 Overview

Live close to the sea bed over sandy substrates. Occur in the surf zone of beaches and quiet waters of bays and sandbanks. Are trawled in offshore waters to at least 55 m and possibly deeper. Juveniles may be found in shallow water off white sand beaches, together with accumulations of dead seaweed in the surf zone during spring and summer in Western Australia. Move into shallow waters in large schools during full moon . Feed mainly on crustaceans, amphipods, decapods, mysids and copepods. Juveniles consume mostly copepods . Oviparous , and are multiple spawners with asynchronous development .

🔬 Taxonomy

🐟 Physical Description

Dorsal spines (total): 11 - 13; Dorsal soft rays (total): 18 - 19; Anal spines: 2; Anal soft rays: 18 - 20; Vertebrae: 33 - 35. No dark spot at the base of the pectoral fin; a series of oblique broken rusty brown bars on the back and upper sides, without a longitudinal row of rusty brown blotches along the midlateral silver stripe.: fusiform / normal; Cross section: circular.

🌀 Behaviour

Behavioural data for Southern school whiting is currently being reviewed.

🦐 Diet

The southern school whiting has a diet similar to other whiting species, although the exact composition differs between species inhabiting the same region, allowing competition to be avoided. Crustaceans make up the bulk of the species food, with calanoids, cladocerans and carids the dominant crustaceans eaten. Other small teleosts, polychaetes and bivalves are also common prey. Prey items change over the range of S. bassensis, and also seasonally as different prey becomes available. A transition is also seen from juvenile to adult stages as at less than 50 mm in length, the species prey consists almost entirely of small planktonic prey, such calanoid copepods and cladocerans, whereas that of the largest fish (100–169 mm) is dominated by more benthic prey, such as polychaetes and carid shrimps, echinoderms, as well as teleosts in some cases. This transition in diet occurs as the older, larger fish move to deeper offshore waters where different prey becomes available to the fish. Throughout its life cycle, S. bassensis usually has some dietary overlap with co-occurring sillaginids, however the diet is still varied enough not to have any negative effects.

🥚 Reproduction

S. bassensis is a multiple spawner and spawns asynchronously during the breeding season .

🌍 Habitat & Distribution

Marine; demersal; oceanodromous ; depth range 1 - 60 m . Temperate; 28°S - 40°S, 112°E - 145°E South Australia (Ref.

🌿 Ecology

📐 Morphometrics

🌡️ Water Parameters & Tolerance

📊 Population Risk & Fisheries

🌐 Names & Taxonomy

🐠 Related Species

🔍 Similar Species

🗺️ Global Occurrence Map

Occurrence records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) — 18 records indexed .

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