''Branchiostegus japonicus'', the horsehead tilefish, Japanese horsehead tilefish, red amadai or the red tilefish, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or hor ...

, a

tilefish 250px, Blue blanquillo, ''Malacanthus latovittatus'' Tilefishes are mostly small perciform marine fish comprising the family Malacanthidae. They are usually found in sandy areas, especially near coral reefs. Commercial fisheries exist for th ...

belonging to the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Malacanthidae 250px, Blue blanquillo, ''Malacanthus latovittatus'' Tilefishes are mostly small perciform marine fish comprising the family Malacanthidae. They are usually found in sandy areas, especially near coral reefs. Commercial fisheries exist for th ...

. It is native to the western

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Description

''Branchiostegus japonicus'' has an elongated, fusiform body with slightly oblique jaws which reach back as far as the front third of the pupil. Overall the body is pinkish-red, overlain by a golden tint and with underlying pale yellow blotches. There are also a number of irregular reddish blotches on the back in the middle of the body, these give the impression of the

mucus Mucus ( ) is a slippery aqueous secretion produced by, and covering, mucous membranes. It is typically produced from cells found in mucous glands, although it may also originate from mixed glands, which contain both serous and mucous cells. It is ...

coating having been locally stripped away to show the underlying golden-yellow hue. The fold to the front of the

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 ...

is dark. Unlike some other species 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 ...

Branchiostegus ''Branchiostegus'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes, tilefishes belonging to the family Malacanthidae. They are found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean through the Indian Ocean to the western Pacific Ocean. Here they create burrows in soft subs ...

'', there are no silvery bars below the eye but there is a large triangular patch of silvery-white below the eye, which is characteristic, and a smaller similarly shaped white patch is sometimes present on the upper edge of the gill cover. The

caudal 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 se ...

has 5 or 6 vivid yellow stripes with the middle stripes being more obvious than this on the upper and lower caudal fin lobes. This species grows to a length of

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish ...

though most are around . The greatest recorded weight for this species is .

Distribution

''Branchiostegus japonicus'' is found in the Western Pacific Ocean. Here it occurs from

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separ ...

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...

in Japan and in the

East China Sea The East China Sea is an arm of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. It covers an area of roughly . The sea’s northern extension between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula is the Yellow Sea, separated b ...

. Its range extends from the coast of China to southern Vietnam and into the waters of the Philippines. It has also been reported from the

Arafura Sea The Arafura Sea (or Arafuru Sea) lies west of the Pacific Ocean, overlying the continental shelf between Australia and Western New Guinea (also called Papua), which is the Indonesian part of the Island of New Guinea. Geography The Arafura Sea is ...

but there is a lack of recent information confirming these reports.

Habitat and biology

''Branchiostegus japonicus'' is found in association with burrows created in soft substrates made up of sand and mud or shell, sand and mud at depths of . It is frequently caught at depths of in the East China and

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. It is one of four seas named after common colour terms ...

s. They

spawn Spawn or spawning may refer to: * Spawn (biology), the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals Arts, entertainment, and media * Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise ** '' Spawn: Ar ...

twice a year, in July and October, with larvae first appearing in the Sado Straits of the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

in October. The fishes excavate their burrows which they used to escape from predators and as nocturnal shelters. They are pelagic spawners, the eggs float in the water column as a mass encased in mucus.

Systematics

''Branchiostegus japonicus'' was first formally described in 1782 as ''Coryphaena japonica'' by the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

naturalist Martinus Hottuyn (1720-1798) with the type locality given as Nanao in Japan. When the French naturalist

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; October 22, 1783September 18, 1840) was a French 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ultimat ...

(1783-1840) created the genus ''Branchiostegus'' in 1815 he used Lacépède's ''Coryphaenoides hottuynii'' as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

Utilisation

''Branchiostegus japonicus'' Is an important species for commercial fisheries, especially in Japan. It is taken using longlines and in trawls. The catch increased from 500 tonnes before 1956 to a maximum of 12,460 tonnes in 1970. The catch has declined since 1980 and in recent years have averaged around 6 000 tonnes per annum. The larger, more aggressive males are more easily caught and the fishing effort has increased as the catch has declined, an indicator that management of this fishery is required. It has been considered for

mariculture Mariculture or marine farming is a specialized branch of aquaculture (which includes freshwater aquaculture) involving the cultivation of marine organisms for food and other animal products, in enclosed sections of the open ocean ( offshore mari ...

, The flesh is sold fresh, in cans and preserved by salting.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3283274 Malacanthidae Fish described in 1782 Taxa named by Martinus Houttuyn ja:アマダイ#日本近海産のおもな種類