They may be seen resting in accumulations during the day. The young tend to be in littoral areas, grass plains and from time to time enter briny waters. Juveniles stay over sand bottoms with or without seagrasses, and over muddy bottoms of lagoons or mangrove areas. It lives in shallow, clear, warm, coastal waters over coral reefs, sand with plants, and mud in mangrove areas or other reef-associated bottom types. The schoolmaster snapper is found in coastal areas of Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean. The fin and tail is bright yellow, yellow green, or pale orange, and the snout contains blue stripes. From the upper jaw to the tip of the fleshy opercle, the line is often broken into parts that resemble dashes and spots. A solid or broken blue line runs beneath the eye it may also disappear with growth. There are 8 narrow, light vertical bars on the side of the body which may be faded or absent in large adults. The lower sides and belly are lighter there is no dark lateral spot below the anterior part of soft dorsal fin. The color is olive gray to brownish on upper back and upper sides, with yellow to reddish mite around the head. The 16 or 17 rays of the pectoral fins are longer than the distance from longest point of the snout to tail edge of preopercle, reaching the level of anus. The anal fin has three spines and eight soft rays that are rounded from the tail. The single dorsal fin has 10 spines and 14 soft rays the spiny portions of the fin are not deeply engraved at the junction with the soft portion. The soft dorsal and anal fins have scales. The interior scale rows on back are parallel to lateral line. There are 40 to 45, usually 42 to 44, tubed scales in the lateral line. One of the upper pairs of canine teeth is clearly larger than back teeth in the lower jaw and can be seen when mouth is closed. Its triangular snout is long and pointed, with a large mouth. The head is large, as long as the body is thick the representation is straight from snout to the backside, and regularly curved to the large, unforked tail. Its thickness can be more than a third of its standard length. The schoolmaster snapper has a husky, moderately deep body with a pointed head.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |