''Priacanthus hamrur'', the lunar-tailed bigeye, goggle eye, or moontail bullseye, is a species of marine fishes belonging to the family

Priacanthidae The Priacanthidae, the bigeyes, are a family of 18 species of marine ray-finned fishes. " Catalufa" is an alternate common name for some members of the Priacanthidae. The etymology of the scientific name (, to bite + , thorn) refers to the fam ...

Distribution

This species is uncommon but widespread in the

Indo-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 ...

, from 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''; T ...

and southern

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

French Polynesia )Territorial motto: ( en, "Great Tahiti of the Golden Haze") , anthem = , song_type = Regional anthem , song = " Ia Ora 'O Tahiti Nui" , image_map = French Polynesia on the globe (French Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of Frenc ...

, southern

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It has been reported also from

Easter Island Easter Island ( rap, Rapa Nui; es, Isla de Pascua) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is most famous for its nearl ...

. Two records have been reported from the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

off Tunisia and Turkey respectively.

Habitat

''Priacanthus hamrur'' is a reef-associated species, living in tropical marine waters on outer reef slopes and rocky areas and in lagoons at depths of 8 to 250 meters, but most commonly from 30 to 50 m.

Description

At sexual maturity the size of ''Priacanthus hamrur'' reaches in males, in females, but males can reach a maximum length of 45 cm. The body of the Crescent-tail Bigeye is relatively deep, strongly compressed laterally. The eyes are very large and red (even in case of silver livery). The mouth is oblique with a protruding lower jaw and small conical teeth. The extremity of the lower lip is above the median line of the body. The dorsal fin has 13 to 15 soft rays. The pelvic fins are very large. The caudal fin has a concave indented margin which may be crescent-shaped (hence the common name). The body of these fishes goes through various phases of color, which may vary from orange to entirely red or entirely silver, or silver with broad six red bands (the first red bar crosses the eye). It is also capable of quickly changing the color. Sometimes it has a row of about fifteen small dark spots along the lateral line or large spots on upper side. The fins are red to light pink. This species is rather similar and can be confused with ''

Priacanthus blochii ''Priacanthus blochii'', the paeony bulleye, is a species of marine ray finned fish, a bigeye in the family Priacanthidae. Other common names for this species include Bloch's bigeye, blotched bigeye, glass-eye bigeye, shortfin bigeye, silver big- ...

'' and with ''

Heteropriacanthus cruentatus ''Heteropriacanthus'', the glasseyes or glass bigeyes, are a genus of the bigeye family found in all tropical seas around the world. It occasionally makes its way into the aquarium trade. It grows to a size of in total length. The glasseyes ha ...

''. Both these last species have the caudal fin only slightly rounded. DORIS -Données d'Observations pour la Reconnaissance et l'Identification de la faune et la flore Subaquatiques
File: Priacanthidae - Priacanthus hamrur-001.jpg, Crescent-tail Bigeye in silver phase File: Crescent-tail bigeye (Priacanthus hamrur) (28822150337).jpg, Barred colour phase File: Crescent-tail bigeye, Priacanthus hamrur, at Elphinstone Reef, Red Sea, Egypt -SCUBA (6180750282).jpg , Entirely red phase File: Priacanthidae - Priacanthus hamrur-002.jpg, A shoal of Crescent-tail Bigeyes

Biology

''Priacanthus hamrur'' feeds primarily at night on small fishes and small crustaceans and various invertebrates (small cephalopods, shrimp, crabs, polychaete worms, etc.). These fishes can be found throughout the year, with a peak in the month of August.iNaturalist
Eggs, larvae and very young juveniles are

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or wa ...

. These fishes usually live solitary, but the may also form small aggregations and sometimes large schools in the open waters.

Bibliography

* Madhusoodana, K. B. and S. Venu. (2006)
Length-weight relationship of ''Priacanthus hamrur'' (Forsskål) inhabiting the continental slopes beyond 300m depth along the west coast of India.
''Fishery Technology'' 43(1). *Allen, G.R. 1997. Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-east Asia. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 292. *Fricke, R. (1999) Fishes of the Mascarene Islands (Réunion, Mauritius, Rodriguez): an annotated checklist, with descriptions of new species., Koeltz Scientific Books, Koenigstein, Theses Zoologicae, Vol. 31:759 p. *Kuiter, R.H. 1996. Guide to Sea Fishes of Australia. New Holland. Pp. 433. *Kuiter, R.H. 2000. Coastal Fishes of South-eastern Australia. Gary Allen. Pp. 437. *Monkolprasit, S., S. Sontirat, S. Vimollohakarn and T. Songsirikul (1997) Checklist of Fishes in Thailand., Office of Environmental Policy and Planning, Bangkok, Thailand. 353 p. *Nguyen, N.T. and V.Q. Nguyen (2006) Biodiversity and living resources of the coral reef fishes in Vietnam marine waters., Science and Technology Publishing House, Hanoi. *Paxton, J.R., D.F. Hoese, G.R. Allen and J.E. Hanley (1989) Pisces. Petromyzontidae to Carangidae., Zoological Catalogue of Australia, Vol. 7. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 665 p. *Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Sateen. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 557. *Starnes, W.C., 1988. Revision, phylogeny and biogeographic comments on the circumtropical marine percoid fish family Priacanthidae. Bull. Mar. Sci. 43(2):117-203.

References

External links

* hamrur Fish described in 1775 Taxa named by Peter Forsskål {{Percoidea-stub