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Platax teira   (Forsskal,  1775) (Fish)
Organism information awaits expert curation

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Description
Size: 50-70 cm.

Color: Yellowish silvery or dusky, with a black (or dusky) bar through eye and another dark bar from dorsal-fin origin across rear edge of operculum and pectoral-fin base to belly, where it usually encloses a black blotch, with another smaller black vertical streak often present at origin of anal fin. Median fins dusky yellow, with black margins posteriorly. Pelvic fins yellow, dusky yellow or blackish.

Body orbicular and strongly compressed. The fronto-ventral profile evenly convex, when snout is closed the snout is closed the snout not forming a prominent angle. Height in adult equal to length, greater than length in young, head 3-4 in length. Eye 2.8 to 4 in length of head, according to age. Preorbital in all ages lower than diameter of eye. Mouth situated before or slightly below inferior border of eye. The 3 cusps of the teeth of about equal height and size. A few teeth on vomer, which are easily lost with age. About 50 scales in a horizontal line between operculum and base of caudal, about 60-65 in lateral line, 25-30 from top of arch lateral line to dorsal fin. Fifth dorsal spine more than twice to thrice higher than fourth in adult, as long as or longer than length of head. Soft dorsal and anal much produced or falcate in young, becoming shorter with growth, finally with a nearly vertical hind border. Caudal slightly emarginate. Pectorals somewhat rounded, equal to length of head or slightly shorter. Spine of ventrals of about same length, first ray in young produced, about as long as height of body, reaching far on soft anal, later on they are much reduced and finally not longer than head. Jaws with bands of slender, flattened, tricuspid teeth, the middle cusp slightly longer than lateral cusps. Vomer with a few teeth, but none on palatines. Five pores on each side of lower jaw. Preopercle smooth. Opercle without spines. Dorsal spines (total): 5 - 6, Dorsal soft rays (total): 28 - 37, Anal spines: 3, Anal soft rays: 22 - 28. Ocular band of adult specimens uniformly dark.

Remarks: Values in above description denote proportions.

Biogeography


• West Bengal, Kiagoria INDIA (Record: 1981-1982)
• West Bengal, Digha Coast (Lat: 21.61) (Long: 87.53) INDIA
• MYANMAR
• Tamil Nadu, Chennai INDIA
• Tamil Nadu, Gulf of Mannar INDIA
• Lakshadweep, Minicoy INDIA
• Red Sea
• Lakshadweep INDIA
• INDIA
• SRI LANKA
• Nicobar Islands INDIA (Record: 08/2000-07/2003)
• Kerala, Ayiramthengu INDIA
• Tamil Nadu, Tuticorin Coast INDIA
• West Bengal, Digha Ghole (Lat: 21.61) (Long: 87.53) INDIA (Record: 1981-1982)
• Lakshadweep, Minicoy Island (Lat: 8.11) (Long: 73.3) INDIA

Literature Source(s)

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• (2001) Fauna of Godavari estuary, Andhra Pradesh Estuarine ecosystem series 4 ZSI, Kolkata 1-166 Available at - ZSI, Pune

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• Froese, R and Pauly, D (2000) Fishbase 2000: Concepts, design and data sources ICLARM 344 pp Available at - http://www.fishbase.org

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• Society for the Management of European Biodiversity Data (2009) World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) Available at - http://www.marinespecies.org

• Marine Biological Station, Chennai, Tamil Nadu (2003) Checklist of marine fauna of Tamil Nadu Department of Environment, Government of Tamil Nadu Available at - http://tnenvis.nic.in

• Weber, M; Beaufort, LF (1936) The fishes of the Indo-Australian Archipelago Print times, Pataudi house, Daryaganj, New Delhi 7 607 pp Available at - NIO, Goa

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• Dr. Kumaraguru, AK (2000) Studies on socioeconomics of Coral Reef resource users in the Gulf of Mannar coast, South India Centre for Marine and Coastal studies School of Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, India Available at - http://planningcommission.nic.in/reports/sereport/ser/stdy_coral.pdf

• Kumar, RR and Edward, JKP (2005) Comparative study on the fish assemblages in natural and artificial reefs in Tuticorin, Gulf of Mannar, Southeast coast of India Proceedings of the National Seminar on Reef Ecosystem Remediation SDMRI Special Research Publication No.9 99-104 Available at - http://www.sdmri.org/reports/proceedings%202005%20-%20sdmri.pdf

• Manna, B and Goswami, BCB (1985) A check-list of marine and estuarine fishes of Digha, West Bengal, India Mahasagar- Bulletin of the National Institute of Oceanography NIO, Goa 18(4) 489-499 Available at - http://nicmas.nio.org/Mahasagar/Mahasagar_V-18/Mahasagar_18%284%29_489.pdf

• Jones, S and Kumaran, M (1959) The fishing industry of Minicoy Island with special reference to the tuna fishery Indian Journal of Fisheries Indian Council of Agricultural Research 6 (1) 30-57 Available at - http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/1866/1/Article_04.pdf

• Varghese, M; Manisseri, MK; Ramamurthy, N; Geetha, PM; Thomas, VJ and Gandhi, A (2011) Coral reef fishes of Gulf of Mannar, S.E of India Fishing Chimes CMFRI 31(1) 38-40 Available at - NIO, Goa

• Pillai, PKM and Augustine, SK (2000) A code list of common marine living resources of the Indian seas CMFRI Special Publication No.12 CMFRI 1-115 Available at - eprints.cmfri.org.in/3975/1/Special_Publication_No_12_Revised.pdf

• Biswas, KP (2009) Fishes around Indian Ocean Reef Fishes Daya publishing house Available at - NIO,Goa

Page last updated on:2011-12-13