Banco_de_peces_trompeta_%28Macroramphosus_scolopax%29%2C_islas_Azores%2C_Portugal%2C_2020-07-27%2C_DD_38

The longspine snipefish, bellowfish, common bellowsfish, snipe-fish, snipefish, spine trumpet fish, or trumpetfish, ''Macroramphosus scolopax'', is a

snipefish ''Macroramphosus'', snipefishes or bellowfishes, is a genus of fishes found in tropical and subtropical oceans at depths down to . According to FishBase, they are part of the family Centriscidae, but Nelson (2016) split that family, in which case ...

of the

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 ...

'' Macroramphosus''. It is also known as the slender snipefish off the South African coast.

Distribution

This fish is found worldwide in tropical to subtropical waterSmith, M.M. and Heemstra, P.C. (eds.) 2003. ''Smiths' Sea Fishes'' in the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

, and west

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 ...

s, at depths of ea. It has also been observed in the eastern Pacific off Santa Catalina Island, California.

Description

Longspine snipefish are reddish pink dorsally but have silvery bellies. They have a large eye, long snouts and a slender spine protruding dorsally.

Ecology

The longspine snipefish feeds on

crustacea 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 gro ...

zooplankton Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...

such as

copepod Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthos, benthic (living on the ocean floor) ...

s and

ostracod Ostracods, or ostracodes, are a class of the Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 70,000 species (only 13,000 of which are extant) have been identified, grouped into several orders. They are small crustaceans, typic ...

s, as well as

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

invertebrates. In the month-long NORFANZ Expedition of 2003 which examined the

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

of the

seamount A seamount is a large geologic landform that rises from the ocean floor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abru ...

s and slopes of the

Norfolk Ridge The Norfolk Ridge is a long submarine ridge running between New Caledonia and New Zealand, about 1300 km off the east-coast of Australia. It is part of a complex region of ridges between the crust of the Pacific Basin and the continental cr ...

, 5000 specimens averaging were collected from three locations.NORFANZ Voyage
Retrieved 2011-10-29.

References

* Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, ''Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand'', (William Collins Publishers Ltd., Auckland, New Zealand 1982) {{Taxonbar, from=Q1225422 Centriscidae Fish described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus