''Pseudupeneus prayensis'', the West African goatfish, is a species of

goatfish The goatfishes are perciform fish of the family Mullidae. The family is also sometimes referred to as the red mullets, which also refers more narrowly to the genus ''Mullus''. The family name and the English common name mullet derived from Lati ...

, a 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 ...

from 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 ...

Mullidae The goatfishes are perciform fish of the family Mullidae. The family is also sometimes referred to as the red mullets, which also refers more narrowly to the genus ''Mullus''. The family name and the English common name mullet derived from Lati ...

. This fish grows to 55 cm maximal length. The species name "prayensis" refers to the city

Praia Praia (, Portuguese language, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde.

, the capital of Cape Verde, the species was described with a type locality of "Port Praya, Cape Verde Islands".

Description

''Pseudupenus prayensis'' has a moderately compressed body with a head profile which is not markedly convex. It has a single spine on the rear margin of the gill cover and a pair of thick barbels below its chin. Both jaws are equipped with strong, conical teeth with a few of the outer teeth in the upper jaw being backward pointing and theser are obvious when the mouth is closed. There are no teeth on

vomer 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 ...

and

palatines Palatines (german: Pfälzer), also known as the Palatine Dutch, are the people and princes of Palatinates ( Holy Roman principalities) of the Holy Roman Empire. The Palatine diaspora includes the Pennsylvania Dutch and New York Dutch. In 1709 ...

. There are 8 spines in the first

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 ...

with the first spine being very short, the second dorsal fin has a single spine and eight soft rays. The body is covered in large scales with a count of 28–29 in the

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial ...

. It is normally a rosy colour marked with three or four horizontal red lines along its body. The largest fishes may have a

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 ...

of but they are more normally .

Distribution

''Pseudupenus prayensis'' occurs in the eastern

Atlantic Ocean 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 ...

, off the coast of

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 ...

between southern Morocco and Angola, including the

Cape Verde Islands , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

. It is a major targeted commercial species off West Africa and has been recorded on rare, distinct occasions in the Mediterranean Sea since 1987.Atlas of Exotic Fishes in 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 ...

(Pseudupeneus prayensis). 2nd Edition. 2021. 366p. CIESM Publishers, Paris, Monaco.https://ciesm.org/atlas/fishes_2nd_edition/Pseudupeneus_prayensis.pdf

Habitat and biology

''Pseudupenus prayensis'' occurs mostly over muddy or sandy sea beds where it feeds on

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. It may also be found over rocky reefs to depths of . It is common in estuaries.

Usage

''Pseudupeneus prayensis'' is an important species for commercial fisheries along the West African coast. They are mainly taken using trawls, although they are also taken using

trammel net A fishing net is a net used for fishing. Nets are devices made from fibers woven in a grid-like structure. Some fishing nets are also called fish traps, for example fyke nets. Fishing nets are usually meshes formed by knotting a relatively thin ...

s and entangling nets. This species is among the most quarry species for coastal demersal fisheries in Ghana while in Senegal it is an important demersal resource and is caught by both industrial and

artisanal fishing Artisanal fishing (or traditional/subsistence fishing) consists of various small-scale, low-technology, low-capital, fishing practices undertaken by individual fishing households (as opposed to commercial fishing). Many of these households are o ...

fleets.

References

External links

Photos of ''Pseudupeneus prayensis''
at FishBase {{Taxonbar, from=Q2213005 Mullidae Fish of the Atlantic Ocean Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Fish of West Africa Fauna of Santiago, Cape Verde Fish described in 1829 Taxa named by Georges Cuvier