Tang's snapper (''Lipocheilus carnolabrum'') 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 marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or hor ...

, a snapper 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 ...

Lutjanidae Lutjanidae, or snappers are a family of perciform fish, mainly marine, but with some members inhabiting estuaries, feeding in fresh water. The family includes about 113 species. Some are important food fish. One of the best known is the red snapp ...

. It is native to 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 western

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 ...

. They inhabit areas of the

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

with rocky substrates at depths from . This species grows to in

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish ...

. It is a

commercially Commerce is the large-scale organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions directly and indirectly related to the exchange (buying and selling) of goods and services among two or more parties within local, regional, nation ...

important species as a food fish. This species is the only known member of its

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Description

Tang's snapper has a body which is around 40% as deep as its

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish m ...

. It has a large mouth, the upper jaw protruded when the mouth is closed, with the adults having a thick, fleshy knob on the front of the upper lip The space between the eyes can either be flat or convex. The are palatine and

vomerine teeth The vomer (; lat, vomer, lit=ploughshare) is one of the unpaired facial bones of the skull. It is located in the midsagittal line, and articulates with the sphenoid, the ethmoid, the left and right palatine bones, and the left and right maxill ...

, with the vomerine teeth being arranged in a V-shaped patch. 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 ...

has a moderate fork. 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 ...

contains 10 spines and 10 soft rays, 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 3 spines and 8 soft rays and there are no scales on either of these fins. The rearmost soft rays in the dorsal and anal fins not produced. 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 long and they extend to past the anus. The upper part of the head and body are brown with yellowish or pinkish flanks and a silvery sheen on the underside. This species grows to in

Distribution

Tang's snapper has a wide Indo-West Pacific distribution. Despite this wide range it has been recorded from only a few localities. These include the

Ryukyu Island 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 Yonagun ...

s, the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

, the

Andaman Sea The Andaman Sea (historically also known as the Burma Sea) is a marginal sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean bounded by the coastlines of Myanmar and Thailand along the Gulf of Martaban and west side of the Malay Peninsula, and separated from ...

, and the northwestern section of the

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 ...

. It has also been recorded from the

Lakshadweep Islands Lakshadweep (), also known as Laccadives (), is a union territory of India. It is an archipelago of 36 islands in the Arabian sea, located off the Malabar Coast. The name ''Lakshadweep'' means "one lakh islands" in Sanskrit, though the Lac ...

and Sri Lanka, Vanuatu, northern Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Habitat and biology

Tang's snapper is a demersal species which occurs over rocky bottoms and rocky reefs on the continental shelf at depths between . It is probably a predator of fishes and larger invertebrates. It is characteristic component of the assemblage of fish species occurring at depths of more than in offshore waters.

Systematics and etymology

Tang's snapper was first formally described in 1970 as ''Tangia carnolabrum'' by Chan William Lai-Yee with the type locality given as being in the South China Sea, about to the southeast of

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

at a depth of . The genus name, ''Tangia'', was preoccupied by a genus of

leafhoppers A leafhopper is the common name for any species from the family Cicadellidae. These minute insects, colloquially known as hoppers, are plant feeders that suck plant sap from grass, shrubs, or trees. Their hind legs are modified for jumping, and a ...

in the family

Tropiduchidae Tropiduchidae is a family of planthoppers in the order Hemiptera. There are at least 160 genera and 600 described species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of ...

, so in 1977 the new genus name ''Lipocheilus'' was coined by William D. Anderson Jr., Purnesh Kumar Talwar and G. David Johnson, the novel name being a compound of meaning 'fat' and meaning 'lip', a reference to the fleshy knob on the upper lip; the specific name ''carnolabrum'' means 'fleshy lips' for a similar reason. It is the only member of its genus.

Utilisation

Tang's snapper is a target species for of long-line fisheries, especially on the continental shelf off southern China while in Papua New Guinea, this species is commercially important despite bot being directly targeted by fisheries. It was formerly 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 ...

in the Western Deepwater Trawl Fishery in Australia, however as of 2016 this was not an active fishery. It is caught using handlines, longlines and bottom trawls.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1902681 Tang's snapper Marine fish of Northern Australia Monotypic fish genera Tang's snapper