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Striate Whiptail Coryphaenoides striaturus Barnard, 1925
[CAAB 37 232053]

Distribution Map see an interactive map here (new window)

Distribution, ecology and habitat:

Widespread in temperate waters of Southern Hemisphere from southeast Atlantic Ocean, across Indian Ocean to Australia and New Zealand; benthopelagic on continental slope at 800-2000 m, usually at 1000-1400 m.

Size:

To 55 cm TL

Food and feeding:

Carnivorous on invertebrates such as polychaete worms, small crustaceans and cephalopod molluscs.

Reproduction and early life history:

Characteristics:

D II, 8-10; P 18-24; V 11-12; GR (inner) 12-16; PC 9-12
Body deep, compressed, head robust, ridges prominent, but not reinforced by stout scales; snout short, slightly protruding, tipped with small terminal and lateral scutes; snout fully scaled; suborbital with low ridge of modified scales; eye moderate, shorter than snout; mouth large, upper jaw teeth in broad band, outer row of enlarged, widely spaced canines, lower jaw teeth in single irregular row; chin barbel long, slender. Body scales relatively large, thin, deciduous, with short, greatly reclined, needle-like spinules in 9-14 parallel rows, head scales generally smaller. First dorsal fin with serrated second spinous ray.

Colour:

Overall pale greyish-silvery to dark brown; abdomen and ventral surfaces of head and trunk darker; fins dusky, blackish in darker individuals; mouth and gill cavities dark.

Similar species:

Fisheries:

Conservation Status:

Remarks:

Other common names:

Original citation:

Coryphaenoides striaturus Barnard, 1925. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (9)15(88): 500, off Cape Point, South Africa.

Etymology:

References:

Iwamoto, T. 1999. Order Gadiformes. In Carpenter, K.E. & V.H. Niem. Species identification guide for fisheries purposes. The living marine resources of the western central Pacific. Batoid fishes, chimeras and bony fishes part 1 (Elopidae to Linophrynidae). FAO, Rome.

Iwamoto, T. & Graham, K.J. 2001. Grenadiers (Families Bathygadidae and Macrouridae,  Gadiformes, Pisces) of New South Wales, Australia. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 52(21): 407-509, figs. 1-114.

Iwamoto, T. & Shchervbachev, Y.N. 1991. Macrourid fishes of the Subgenus Chalinura, Genus Coryphaenoides, from the Indian Ocean; Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 47(7): 207-233.

Iwamoto, T. & Williams, A. 1999. Grenadiers (Pisces, Gadiformes) from the continental slope of western and northwestern Australia. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 51(3): 105-243, figs. 1-58.

Merrett, N.R. & T. Iwamoto. 2000. Pisces Gadiformes: Grenadier fishes of the New Caledonian region, southwest Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy and distribution, with ecological notes, pp. 723-781 In Crosnier, R. (ed). Résultats des Campagnes MUSORSTOM, 21. Mem. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. 184.