''Leiognathus brevirostris'', commonly known as the shortnose ponyfish, is a fish of brackish and marine waters found from Indo-West
Pacific
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 contine ...
to the
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n coasts and off
Sri Lanka to
China and south of
Australia. Like its relatives, the fish is an
amphidromous,
demersal species which feeds on
diatoms,
copepods, ''
Lucifer
Lucifer is one of various figures in folklore associated with the planet Venus. The entity's name was subsequently absorbed into Christianity as a name for the devil. Modern scholarship generally translates the term in the relevant Bible passa ...
'',
nematodes and
polychaete
Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made ...
s. The fish has eight dorsal spines, sixteen dorsal soft rays, three anal spines and fourteen anal soft rays. Fresh specimens possess a golden gleam which fades with dryness.
References
External links
ClassificationBiology and fishery of ''Leiognathus brevirostris'' (Valenciennes) from the Palk Bay and the Gulf of MannarShortnose ponyfishObservations on the diet of the silverbelly ''Leiognathus brevirostris'' (Valenciennes 1835) from Kerala coast
Fish of the Pacific Ocean
Fish of the Indian Ocean
Bioluminescent fish
Fish described in 1835
brevirostris
{{Perciformes-stub