''Datnioides'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of fish known commonly as

tigerfish Tigerfish can refer to fish from various families, and derives from official and colloquial associations of these with the tiger (''Panthera tigris''). However, the primary species designated by the name "tigerfish" are African and belong to the ...

tiger perch Grunters or tigerperches are ray-finned fishes in the family Terapontidae (also spelled Teraponidae, Theraponidae or Therapontidae). This family is part of the superfamily Percoidea of the order Perciformes. Characteristics The Terapontidae i ...

or freshwater tripletails, but all of these common names are also used for other families. It is the only genus in the family Datnioididae. These fish are found in fresh and brackish waters of rivers,

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environme ...

and coastal areas in

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

, and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...

. Some researchers suggest that this family is related to the tripletails, family Lobotidae, while others do not find enough evidence to make the suggestion. The two families share an apparently unique mode of tooth replacement, a trait which might be a

synapomorphy In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to hav ...

.Hilton, E. J. & W. E. Bemis. (2005)
Grouped tooth replacement in the oral jaws of the tripletail, ''Lobotes surinamensis'' (Perciformes: Lobotidae), with a discussion of its proposed relationship to ''Datnioides''.
''Copeia'' 2005(3), 665-72.

Characteristics

Datnioides have a total of 24 vertebrae. The dorsal fin has a hard-rayed portion with 12 fin rays, and a soft-rayed portion with 15 to 16 fin rays. Along with the anal fin, which sits towards the rear of the fish, and the round caudal fin, these fins give the appearance of three caudal fins. The ploughshare bone and palatine bone in Datnioides fish are toothless. There are five species of Datnioides that can grow to be 30 to 45 centimeters in length. These fish are predatory and feed on small fish.

Systematics

The Dutch ichthyologist Pieter Bleeker first introduced the genus Datnioides in 1853. In most classifications, these fish are placed in their own family, called Datnioididae. The genera Lobotes and Hapalogenys, which was formerly often placed in the family Haemulidae, are closely related to Datnioides. In the standard work on fish systematics, "Fishes of the World" by Joseph S. Nelson, Datnioides and Lobotes are placed in the family Lobotidae, which was introduced by U.S. ichthyologist Theodore Nicholas Gill in 1861. Gill also introduced the genus Datnioides in 1861.

Species

The currently recognized

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 appropriat ...

in this genus are: * '' Datnioides campbelli'' Whitley, 1939 – New Guinea tiger perch * ''

Datnioides microlepis ''Datnioides microlepis'', also known as the Indonesian tiger perch, Indo datmoid, Indonesian tigerfish, or finescale tigerfish, is a species of freshwater fish endemic to the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia ( Sumatra and Kalimantan). Previous re ...

'' Bleeker, 1854 – finescale tigerfish, Indonesian tigerfish * ''

Datnioides polota ''Datnioides polota'', commonly known as the silver tigerfish or four-banded tiger perch, is a species of datnioidid fish native to brackish and fresh waters near the coast like mangrove, lagoons, estuaries and lower parts of rivers from north ...

'' ( F. Hamilton, 1822) – silver tigerfish * '' Datnioides pulcher'' (

Kottelat Maurice Kottelat (born 16 July 1957 in Delémont, SwitzerlandCo ...

, 1998) – Siamese tiger perch, Siamese tigerfish * '' Datnioides undecimradiatus'' ( T. R. Roberts & Kottelat, 1994) – Mekong tiger perch

References

External links

Secrets of the Datnoids Tigerfish.
datnoidstigerfish.org Perciformes genera Percoidei {{Perciformes-stub