''Lethrinus microdon'' 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 emperor fish. It is a marine fish, bluish-grey or brown in colour with pale or somewhat orange fins. This species is reef-associated and is often found in small schools, occasionally with '' Lethrinus olivaceus'' at depths of 10 to 80 metres. It is widespread in the

Indo-West 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 ...

and other waters. This species is caught commercially and is considered to be an excellent food fish.

Common names

Common names include the following, or variants thereof: * Smalltooth emperorftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/t0242e/T0242E10.pdf * Longface emperor * Longnosed emperor * Pigface bream

Description

This species is bluish-grey or brown in colour with pale or somewhat orange fins, and has a moderately long snout. It commonly has dark, scattered, irregular blotches on its sides. Some specimens have three streaks of dark colouration radiating away from the eye toward the snout. It is a relatively elongate fish and grows to a maximum length of approximately 70 cm, but is commonly recorded at between 30 and 50 cm in length.

Distribution

''Lethrinus microdon'' is a widespread species. It has been recorded 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''; ...

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...

, from East Africa to Sri Lanka, in the

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yona ...

as well as

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

Habitat

This fish is non-migratory and is found over sandy bottoms near reefs. It forms small schools, occasionally with '' Lethrinus olivaceus'', and has a maximum depth range of approximately 10 to 80 metres.

Diet

''Lethrinus microdon'' feeds in the day and at night, and is known to feed mainly on other fishes, cephalopods,

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 can ...

s, and

polychaete Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made ...

Human uses

This species is fished commercially and is considered to be an excellent food fish. It is usually marketed fresh and not frozen. It is known to be caught using

gill net Gillnetting is a fishing method that uses gillnets: vertical panels of netting that hang from a line with regularly spaced floaters that hold the line on the surface of the water. The floats are sometimes called "corks" and the line with corks is ...

trawl Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch different speci ...

s, handlines, and

fish trap A fish trap is a trap used for fishing. Fish traps include fishing weirs, lobster traps, and some fishing nets such as fyke nets. Traps are culturally almost universal and seem to have been independently invented many times. There are two ma ...

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q31403 Lethrinidae Fish described in 1830