Pelagic butterfish
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| Pelagic butterfish | ||||||||||||||
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.gif/180px-Schedophilus_maculatus_(Pelagic_butterfish).gif) Drawing by Dr Tony Ayling
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| Schedophilus maculatus Günther, 1860 |
The pelagic butterfish, Schedophilus maculatus, is a medusafish of the genus Schedophilus found in all warm oceans. Its length is up to about 30 cm.
The pelagic butterfish is one of the smallest and rarest members of the Centrolophidae family. It has a very blunt head and narrow but deep body coloured yellowish mottled with dark grey. The single long dorsal fin extends from above the gills to just before the caudal peduncle.
Juveniles are known to live within jellyfish, but move to deeper water as they grow and mature.
[edit] References
- "Schedophilus maculatus". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. March 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
- Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand, (William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1982) ISBN 0-00-216987-8
