''Arrhamphus sclerolepis'', the Northern snub-nosed garfish, is a species of

halfbeak Hemiramphidae is a family of fishes that are commonly called halfbeaks, spipe fish or spipefish. They are a geographically widespread and numerically abundant family of epipelagic fish inhabiting warm waters around the world. The halfbeaks are ...

in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Arrhamphus ''Arramphus'' is a small genus of halfbeaks from the family Hemiramphidae from the coasts of Australia, the two species in the genus were formerly considered to be conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a ...

'' found in

coastal waters The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

of the Indo-West Pacific around

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, and in the freshwaters of adjacent

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

systems. Considered a good game fish, but of little commercial value either as food or as an

aquarium fish Lists of aquarium life include lists of fish, amphibians, invertebrates and plants in freshwater, brackish and marine aquariums. In fishkeeping, suitable species of aquarium fish, plants and other organisms vary with the size, water chemistry and ...

. This species is known to anglers in Australia as the snub-nosed gar. The species is distinguished from most other halfbeaks by the lower jaw being only slightly longer than the upper jaw. In coastal wetlands this species feeds mainly on sea grass, with some crustaceans, but in urban waterways it feeds on algae at night and on ants during the day.

References

sclerolepis ''Sclerolepis'' is an aquatic plant native to the eastern United States. It has only one known species, ''Sclerolepis uniflora'', the pink bogbutton. It lives in ponds and other wet areas. When water is abundant, the plant lives underwater, wit ...

Fish described in 1866 Taxa named by Albert Günther {{Beloniformes-stub