''Scleropages jardinii'', the Gulf saratoga, Australian bonytongue , Pearl arowana or northern saratoga, is a

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

bony fish Osteichthyes (), popularly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse superclass of fish that have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondrichthyes, which have skeletons primarily composed of cartilag ...

native to

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 ...

and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

, one of two species of fishes sometimes known as Australian arowana, the other being ''

Scleropages leichardti The southern saratoga (''Scleropages leichardti''), also known as the spotted bonytongue, spotted saratoga, or simply saratoga, is a freshwater bony fish native to Australia. It belongs to the subfamily Osteoglossinae, or arowanas, a primitive gro ...

''. It has numerous other common names, including northern saratoga, toga and barramundi (not to be confused with the

barramundi The barramundi (''Lates calcarifer'') or Asian sea bass, is a species of catadromous fish in the family Latidae of the order Perciformes. The species is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific, spanning the waters of the Middle East, South ...

perch, ''

Lates calcarifer The barramundi (''Lates calcarifer'') or Asian sea bass, is a species of catadromous fish in the family Latidae of the order Perciformes. The species is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific, spanning the waters of the Middle East, South ...

''). It is a member of the subfamily

Osteoglossinae Arowanas are freshwater bony fish of the subfamily Osteoglossinae, also known as bony tongues (the latter name is now often reserved for Arapaiminae). In this family of fish, the head is bony and the elongated body is covered by large, heavy s ...

, a ( basal)

teleost Teleostei (; Greek ''teleios'' "complete" + ''osteon'' "bone"), members of which are known as teleosts ), is, by far, the largest infraclass in the class Actinopterygii, the ray-finned fishes, containing 96% of all extant species of fish. Tel ...

group. Its scientific name is sometimes spelled ''S. jardini''.

Distribution

''Scleropages jardinii'' is patchily distributed throughout most of the Gulf of Carpentaria drainage system, west to the Adelaide River in the Northern Territory, throughout northern Queensland and in central-southern

.Martin F. Gomon (2011
Northern Saratoga, Scleropages jardinii
Fishes of Australia. Retrieved 29 August 2014. It inhabits still clear waters of pools and billabongs, and the slow-flowing sections of streams. It is not considered endangered or threatened by either the

CITES CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...

conventions nor the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

Description

This fish has a long, dark-colored body with seven rows of large scales, each with several reddish or pinkish spots arranged in a crescent shape around the trailing edge of the scale, giving it a pearly appearance. It has large, wing-like pectoral fins. Except for duller coloration and smaller scale size, it appears very similar to the

Asian arowana The Asian arowana (''Scleropages formosus'') comprises several phenotypic varieties of freshwater fish distributed geographically across Southeast Asia. While most consider the different varieties to belong to a single species, work by Pouyaud ...

, ''S. formosus''. It grows to a length of about . Its maximum weight is recorded as , but one report suggests it has been known to weigh as much as . The depth of the bodies of adults is approximately 25-28% of the Standard Length, making this a more robust fish than its Australian cousin ''S. leichardti''. Like other arowanas, it is a mouthbrooder, but unlike the Asian arowana, reports suggest the female rather than the male broods the young in her mouth. Due to their resemblance to the Asian arowanas they are sometimes sold in the name of golden arowana in some of the Asian countries, like India. However, they can be easily distinguished from the Asian arowanas by identifying their red spotted fins & 7-8 rows of scales on their body.

Diet

Gulf saratoga are opportunistic carnivores, feeding on aquatic and terrestrial insects, small fishes and crustaceans.

References

* * * Dawes, John; Chuan, Lim Lian; & Cheong, Leslie, eds (1999). ''Dragon Fish, The''. Kingdom Books England.

External links

Fishes of Australia website

Native Fish Australia article
{{Taxonbar, from=Q135567 Scleropages Freshwater fish of Australia Fish described in 1892 Taxa named by William Saville-Kent

Distribution

Description

Diet

See also

References

External links