''Hyporhamphus unifasciatus'', the common halfbeak or the Atlantic silverstripe halfbeak, is a

bony fish Osteichthyes (), popularly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse superclass of fish that have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondrichthyes, which have skeletons primarily composed of cartilag ...

in the family

Hemiramphidae 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 ...

. It is found in the subtropical western Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. It is a common fish and not used for food to any great extent, and the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has listed its conservation status as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

Description

The common halfbeak grows to a length of about . It is an elongated cylindrical fish, tapering slightly at both ends; the length is typically six to ten times the depth. As is typical of halfbeaks, the lower jaw is elongated (less so in young fish) while the upper jaw is short. There are many sharp teeth, and the dorsal surface of the head has a patch of enlarged scales. 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 ...

has 14 to 16 soft rays and 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 ...

has 15 to 17 soft rays, these two fins being of equivalent size and both being set far back near the caudal peduncle. There are no extra little finlets between them and the tailfin. The general colour of this fish is dark green with a silvery sheen. There are three dark longitudinal lines on the top of the back and the fins have dusky edges. A silvery line runs from the eye to the caudal peduncle, and the flanks below this are paler. In the living fish, the tip of the lower jaw is red. The lining of the abdominal cavity is black.

Distribution and habitat

The common halfbeak is native to the sub-tropical western Atlantic Ocean. Its range includes both the Atlantic coasts of America, the Caribbean coast and the Gulf of Mexico, and its range extends as far north as the

Gulf of Maine The Gulf of Maine is a large gulf of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of North America. It is bounded by Cape Cod at the eastern tip of Massachusetts in the southwest and by Cape Sable Island at the southern tip of Nova Scotia in the northeast ...

. It occurs in the shallow

sublittoral zone The neritic zone (or sublittoral zone) is the relatively shallow part of the ocean above the drop-off of the continental shelf, approximately in depth. From the point of view of marine biology it forms a relatively stable and well-illuminated ...

down to depths of about in coastal areas, bays and estuaries.

Ecology

This is a schooling fish living in surface waters. It is an omnivore, feeding on

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

, pieces of seagrass, small invertebrates and fish. It is

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and ...

Status

The common halfbeak is a common fish in most of its range and is especially abundant in the northern Gulf of Mexico. It is sometimes caught as

bycatch Bycatch (or by-catch), in the fishing industry, is a fish or other marine species that is caught unintentionally while fishing for specific species or sizes of wildlife. Bycatch is either the wrong species, the wrong sex, or is undersized or juve ...

when fishing for other species but, although it is edible, it is not much esteemed. No specific threats to this species have been identified and the

has listed it as being of "

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4362546 unifasciatus Fish described in 1841