The American butterfish (''Peprilus triacanthus''), also known as the Atlantic butterfish, is a butterfish of the family

Stromateidae The family Stromateidae or butterfish contains 15 species of fish in three genera. Butterfishes live in coastal waters off the Americas, western Africa and in the Indo-Pacific. The endemic New Zealand species '' Odax pullus'' is commonly called b ...

.Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. (2019). FishBase. Peprilus triacanthus (Peck, 1804). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=159828 on 2019-12-02

Description

Fish of this species are usually deep-bodied, flattened sideways, and somewhat circular or rounded, with blunt noses and small mouths with weak teeth. Some other characteristics of this fish are the absence of ventral fins, one long, continuous

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

, long

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

s, and tiny,

cycloid scale A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scales, which can also provide effective camouflage through the use of reflection and colouration, as w ...

s. The tail fin is nearly as long as the dorsal fin and deeply forked. The American butterfish is similar in appearance to its close relative, the

harvestfish ''Peprilus paru'', (harvestfish or American harvestfish; syn. ''Peprilus alepidotus''), also occasionally known by a few local names as star butter fish or sometimes even simply as butterfish, is a marine, benthopelagic, circular-shaped and deep- ...

(''Peprilus alepidotus''), but can be distinguished by its much lower dorsal and tail fin. This fish is a lead-blue color above with pale sides and a silvery belly. It often has dark, irregular spots. It is generally , though some individuals reach . They can weigh from .

Distribution and habitat

The American butterfish ranges from the Atlantic coast of North America, from the offing of South Carolina and from coastal North Carolina waters to the outer coast of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton; northward as a stray to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to the south and east coasts of Newfoundland; and southward to Florida in deep water.Henry B. Bigelow and William C. Schroeder. 1953
Butterfish ''Poronotus triacanthus'' (Peck) 1800
in ''Fishes of the Gulf of Maine''. ''Fishery Bulletin'' 74(53) Relatively little is known about the American butterfish considering it is an important food source and a common species. It travels in small bands or loosely organized

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compuls ...

s, preferring sandy-bottomed areas to muddy ones, and often coming close to shore. During summer months, it does not swim deeper than 10 to 15

fathom A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems equal to , used especially for measuring the depth of water. The fathom is neither an International Standard (SI) unit, nor an internationally-accepted non-SI unit. Hi ...

s (20 to 30 m), but in the winter and early spring, it may be found 100 to 115 fathoms (200 to 230 m) below the surface.

Feeding

It feeds on small

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

s, and

annelid The annelids (Annelida , from Latin ', "little ring"), also known as the segmented worms, are a large phylum, with over 22,000 extant species including ragworms, earthworms, and leeches. The species exist in and have adapted to various ecol ...

Breeding

The American butterfish spawns in the

Gulf of Maine The Gulf of Maine is a large gulf of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of North America. It is bounded by Cape Cod at the eastern tip of Massachusetts in the southwest and by Cape Sable Island at the southern tip of Nova Scotia in the northeast ...

during the summer months, peaking in July. It appears to spawn a few miles out to sea and returns to the coast when finished. Incubation lasts less than 48 hours in water at 65 °F (18 °C). Fry are long at hatching, and by autumn, have grown to a length of . They appear to reach maturity at about two years of age.

References

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Butterfish at Northeast Fisheries Science Center
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2119266

American butterfish The American butterfish (''Peprilus triacanthus''), also known as the Atlantic butterfish, is a butterfish of the family Stromateidae.Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. (2019). FishBase. Peprilus triacanthus (Peck, 1804). Accessed through: World R ...

Commercial fish Fauna of Atlantic Canada Fish of the Eastern United States Fish of the Western Atlantic