The Centriscidae are a family of fishes from the order

Syngnathiformes The Syngnathiformes are an order of ray-finned fishes that includes the trumpetfishes and seahorses.FishBase (2005)Order Summary for Syngnathiformes Version of 2005-FEB-15. Retrieved 19 Aug 2008. These fishes have elongated, narrow, bodies surr ...

which includes the

snipefish ''Macroramphosus'', snipefishes or bellowfishes, is a genus of fishes found in tropical and subtropical oceans at depths down to . According to FishBase, they are part of the family Centriscidae, but Nelson (2016) split that family, in which case ...

es,

shrimpfish Shrimpfish, also called razorfish, are five small species of marine fishes in the subfamily Centriscinae of the family Centriscidae. The species in the genera ''Aeoliscus'' and ''Centriscus'' are found in relatively shallow tropical parts of the ...

es, and

bellowfish The bellowfishes or bellowsfishes are fishes in the genus ''Notopogon'' in the family Centriscidae. They are found in deeper parts of the temperate southern oceans, although the longspine bellowfish has been recorded as far north as New Caledoni ...

es. A small family, consisting of only about a dozen marine species, they are of an unusual appearance, as reflected by their common names. The species in this family are restricted to relatively shallow, tropical parts of the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

Description

They have extremely compressed, razor-like bodies which have a sharp ventral edge and a dorsal surface which is nearly straight in profile ending in a long snout which has a tiny mouth with pincer-like jaws which lack teeth. The spiny part 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 located close to the tail and is made of one long, sharp spine at the anterior end with two shorter spines behind that. The soft, posterior part of the dorsal fin and 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 ...

are situated on the ventral surface and lie below the posterior-most part of the body, which is pointed. The

pelvic fin Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral surface of fish. The paired pelvic fins are homologous to the hindlimbs of tetrapods. Structure and function Structure In actinopterygians, the pelvic fin consists of two en ...

s are small and are located around the middle of its body while the

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 are larger. The body is almost completely covered in thin, translucent bony plates which are created by expansion of its

vertebrae The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic i ...

. The species within this family do not have a

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial ...

. These fish tend to swim with their heads pointed towards the substrate, although why they do this is unclear. Some species occur within beds of

sea grass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the orde ...

while other species are reef fishes. They are predators of

zooplankton Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...

Taxonomy

In some classifications, the subfamily Macroramphosinae is raised to the level of family, Macroramphosidae. The placement of the genus ''

Centriscops The banded bellowsfish (''Centriscops humerosus''), banded yellowfish, banded snipefish, or bluebanded bellowsfish, is a species of fish of the family Macroramphosidae, found in southern oceans at depths of . Its length is up to . Description The ...

'' is unclear:

ITIS The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) is an American partnership of federal agencies designed to provide consistent and reliable information on the taxonomy of biological species. ITIS was originally formed in 1996 as an interagenc ...

places it in Macroramphosidae, as does the 5th edition of Nelson (2016). The two genera currently classified within the Centriscidae are: *''

Aeoliscus ''Aeoliscus'' is a genus of shrimpfishes found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Species There are currently two recognized extant species of Aeoliscus in this genus: * '' Aeoliscus punctulatus'' (Bianconi, 1854) (speckled shrimpfish) * ''Aeolis ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

& Starks, 1902 *''

Centriscus ''Centriscus'' is a genus of shrimpfishes found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Species Currently, two recognized species are placed in this genus: * '' Centriscus cristatus'' (De Vis, 1885) (smooth razorfish) * ''Centriscus scutatus'' Linnaeu ...

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

, 1758

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1366524 Marine fish families Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte