''Pinguipes chilensis'', commonly known as the Chilean sandperch, 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 ...

ray-finned 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 ...

fish in the family

Pinguipedidae The sandperches are a family, Pinguipedidae, of fishes in the percomorph order Trachiniformes. Sandperches are benthic fish which normally occur over sand or rubble substrates in shallow seas. They are found off the coasts of South America, ...

. It is found in the southeastern Pacific Ocean off the coasts of Peru and Chile.

Description

''P. chilensis'' can grow to a maximum length of . The dorsal fin has six spines and twenty-eight soft rays, and the anal fin has a single spine and twenty-five soft rays. A specimen caught by

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

during the ''Beagle'' voyage was described as being more elongated than '' Pinguipes brasilianus'', being about six and a half times as long as the body is deep and as having two longitudinal rows of ill-defined spots on the flanks and a larger, dark-coloured, round spot at the base of the caudal fin.

Distribution and habitat

''P. chilensis'' is found in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. Its range extends from Tumbes in northern Peru, southwards to the

Magallanes Region The Magallanes Region (), officially the Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region ( es, Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena), is one of Chile's 16 first order administrative divisions. It is the southernmost, largest, and second lea ...

of southern Chile. It is found on muddy bottoms as well as on rocks and sand, to depths of . It is also present in the

kelp forest Kelp forests are underwater areas with a high density of kelp, which covers a large part of the world's coastlines. Smaller areas of anchored kelp are called kelp beds. They are recognized as one of the most productive and dynamic ecosystems on Ea ...

alongside other carnivorous fish such as the Peruvian morwong (''Cheilodactylus variegatus''), the sea chub (''

Graus nigra ''Graus nigra'' is a species of sea chub endemic to the Pacific coast of South America, ranging from Valdivia in Chile to southern Peru. This species grows to a total length of . It is popular as a game fish. This species is the only known memb ...

'') and the Cape redfish (''Sebastes capensis'').

Ecology

''P. chilensis'' is a generalist predator, its diet consisting mainly of

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 ...

s, with smaller quantities of fish and polycheate worms; less often eaten are

molluscs Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil sp ...

brittle star Brittle stars, serpent stars, or ophiuroids (; ; referring to the serpent-like arms of the brittle star) are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea, closely related to starfish. They crawl across the sea floor using their flexible arms for locomo ...

sea urchin Sea urchins () are spiny, globular echinoderms in the class Echinoidea. About 950 species of sea urchin live on the seabed of every ocean and inhabit every depth zone from the intertidal seashore down to . The spherical, hard shells (tests) of ...

s, proboscis worms,

peanut worms The Sipuncula or Sipunculida (common names sipunculid worms or peanut worms) is a class containing about 162 species of unsegmented marine annelid worms. The name ''Sipuncula'' is from the genus name ''Sipunculus'', and comes from the Latin ' ...

spoon worms The Echiura, or spoon worms, are a small group of marine animals. Once treated as a separate phylum, they are now considered to belong to Annelida. Annelids typically have their bodies divided into segments, but echiurans have secondarily los ...

and

tunicate A tunicate is a marine invertebrate animal, a member of the subphylum Tunicata (). It is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords (including vertebrates). The subphylum was at one time ca ...

s. Small fish (less than long) fed largely of the amphipod '' Ampelisca araucana'' while medium size fish mostly took

mysids Mysida is an order of small, shrimp-like crustaceans in the malacostracan superorder Peracarida. Their common name opossum shrimps stems from the presence of a brood pouch or "marsupium" in females. The fact that the larvae are reared in this ...

such as '' Neomysis'' sp. The largest fish (over long) mostly preyed on other species of fish, worms, molluscs and sea urchins. The diet also varies according to the time of year and the seasonal availability of prey species, with more fish being taken in the autumn. This fish 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 ...

, with spawning taking place in the spring.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1942292 Pinguipedidae Fish of Chile Fish of Peru Western South American coastal fauna Fish described in 1833 Taxa named by Achille Valenciennes