The Chinese trumpetfish, ''Aulostomus chinensis'', is a

demersal The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean (or deep lake) consisting of the part of the water column near to (and significantly affected by) the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer of ...

marine fish 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 ...

Aulostomidae The trumpetfishes are three species of highly specialized, tubularly-elongated marine fishes in the genus ''Aulostomus'', of the monogeneric family Aulostomidae. The trumpetfishes are members of the order Syngnathiformes, together with the seaho ...

Description

''Aulostomus chinensis'' is a medium-sized

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 ...

which grows up to 80 cm in length. Its body is elongated and compressed laterally, with a long, tubular snout which has a small barbel at its inferior extremity. The protusible mouth can be extended forward to catch prey. On the top posterior part of the body, 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 composed of two parts, the first anterior is a set of isolated spines and the second is a small ray fin. This latter fin is similar in shape to the

anal 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 ...

which is just under. 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 located in the middle of the body and are small, with one basal black spot. The body coloration can be uniform or mottled in a range of grey, brown, or dark green. Some fish are uniformly bright yellow. The rear part of the body is normally black with white dots. Two black spots are present on the tail. The compound set of the long caudal peduncle 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 ...

is yellowish, whatever the fish coloration. Caudal fin usually has two round black spots, at least one black spot occurs on the top and sometimes a second spot on the low part.DORIS
/ref> File: Yellow Trumpet Fish.jpg, A yellow Chinese trumpetfish File: Aulostomidae - Aulostomus chinensis.JPG, ''A. chinensis'' showing the black rear part of the body File: Aulostomus chinensis JNC2527 - head.JPG, ''A. chinensis'', detail of head File: Aulostomus chinensis JNC2527 - tail.JPG, ''A. chinensis'', detail of tail

Distribution and habitat

This species is found in tropical and subtropical waters from the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

and the

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 ...

, but not in the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...

. It lives in clear and calm waters in rocky and coral reefs from the surface to 120 m deep.

Behaviour

The Chinese trumpetfish is diurnal and solitary. It is a clever stealth hunter with two techniques to catch its prey. The first is the ambush, consisting of lying in wait for a potential prey close to hard coral,

black coral Antipatharians, also known as black corals or thorn corals, are an order of soft deep-water corals. These corals can be recognized by their jet-black or dark brown chitin skeletons, surrounded by the polyps (part of coral that is alive). Antip ...

bush, or gorgonian. The second is the discrete tracking, where the trumpetfish stays close to some big fishes (

grouper Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes. Not all serranids are called "groupers"; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name "grouper" is u ...

s, carangids) or even

hawksbill sea turtle The hawksbill sea turtle (''Eretmochelys imbricata'') is a critically endangered sea turtle belonging to the family Cheloniidae. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Eretmochelys''. The species has a global distribution, that is largel ...

s (''Eretmochelys imbricata'') until it has the opportunity to approach unsuspecting prey. The Chinese trumpetfish feeds on small

es and

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 ...

References

Marine Species

External links

* Chinese trumpetfish Fish of China Chinese trumpetfish Chinese trumpetfish {{Syngnathiformes-stub