Ocean Blue-eye Trevalla, Schedophilus labyrinthica (McAlister & Randall 1975)

Other Names: African Barrelfish, Blue Eye Cod, Ocean Blue-eye

Ocean Blue-eye Trevalla, Schedophilus labyrinthicus. Source: Australian National Fish Collection, CSIRO. License: CC BY Attribution-Noncommercial

Summary:

A large robust firm-bodied trevalla with a blunt snout, and a low spinous dorsal fin grading into the soft-rayed part of the fin. The Ocean Blue-eye Trevalla is dark silvery-green to brilliant bluish-violet above becoming silvery-white below, with broad pale bars along the upper side, dark metallic-grey fins fading to a dark brownish black along the edges. The deeper-bodied juveniles have much larger dorsal and anal fins, and much longer pelvic fins, and are mottled with irregular darker blotches and vermiculations.

Cite this page as:

Bray, D.J. 2020, Schedophilus labyrinthica in Fishes of Australia, accessed 16 Apr 2024, https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/746

Ocean Blue-eye Trevalla, Schedophilus labyrinthica (McAlister & Randall 1975)

More Info

Distribution	Off Brunswick Heads to off Stockton Bight, New South Wales; also seamounts off New South Wales, and off Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea. Elsewhere, the species is circumglobal in southern waters.
Features	Dorsal fin VII-VIII, 26-29; Anal fin III, 18-21; Pelvic fin I, 5; Gill rakers 6-7 + 1 + 16-18; Lateral-line scales (pored) ~90-96; Scales above Llat 20-21; Scales below Llat 37-38; Vertebrae (abdominal + caudal) 10+15=25; Pyloric caeca 4-8. Stoutly built, deep-bodied, back distinctly higher than belly is deep, greatest body depth well in advance of mid-abdomen, tapering and becoming compressed towards tail. Caudal peduncle short, deep, and distinctly compressed; lacks keels. Head of moderate size, deep and thick, antero-dorsal edge of head-nape pointed, almost crested. Eye small, set well down in lateral head, interorbital broad and deeply convex. Snout blunt, almost truncate. Jaws about equal, mouth small, cleft slightly oblique, reaching to about anterior eye margin, lips firm. Anterior nostril small, broadly ovate, posterior nostril larger, a semicircular slit much closer to tip of snout than to eyes, nostrils close together. Edge of preoperculum denticulate, opercular margin with a weak flat spine above pectoral fin base. Teeth present on premaxilla and dentary, very small, uniserial, cardiform; no teeth on vomer, palatine, pterygoids, basihyal or basibranchials. Gill openings extensive, opercular membranes not joined to isthmus. Gill rakers of moderate length, quite slender. Pyloric caeca few and fingerlike. Unpaired fins low; dorsal origin distinctly in advance of pectoral base, about above upper opercular opening, dorsal fin supported by low, stout spines anteriorly, folding into a distinct groove, height of fin rising gently with no distinct change in fin height at last spine, soft-rayed portion of fin highest at front and quickly tapering, fin base invested in thick, fleshy skin. Caudal fin well-forked, fin tips pointed. Anal fin similar in form to soft rayed dorsal, origin at about middle of soft rayed dorsal. Pectoral fin inserted at about 2/3 body depth, a little below lower eye margin, fin base moderately oblique, fin of moderate length, semi-ovate, upper rays longest. Pelvic fin origin below pectoral base, strongly dveloped, triangular folding into a well-defined mid-ventral groove, connected to belly by membrane along inner margin. Scales of moderate size, about 90 along lateral line, strong and adherent, covering trunk, absent from top of head but present on operculum, suboperculum with two rows around anterior margin of preoperculum. Fleshy bases of dorsal and anal fins scaled, small scales extending well out on to caudal fin base. Little obvious development of mucosal canals on head and trunk. Lateral line more or less follows profile of back
Colour	In preservative: dark brown dorsally, yellowish below. Fins without dark markings. Buccal and branchial cavities light. Peritoneum light with fine speckling. Iris golden, appearing as a complete ring undivided by a bar. A brilliant violet colour with vertical bars. In preservative blotchy greyish-brown, head with distinct pale blotches on nape, above eyes, around nostrils and around angle of jaw; dorsal and anal fins greyish along fleshy bases but dark brownish-black along margins, outer fringes of pectorals and pelvics similarly dark brownish-black. Juveniles are heavily pigmented with darker patches on the snout, over the eye, and on the gill cover. The body has a mottled pattern of irregular darker patches with paler centres that resemble the vertical barring of other centrolophid species. The pelvic, pectoral, and caudal fins are heavily pigmented, and the dorsal and anal fins are mottled like the body.
Feeding	Carnivore - feeds on pelagic salps, cephalopods and small fishes.
Remarks	In Australia, this species has previously been referred to as Seriolella labyrinthicus and Schedophilus vellaini.
Etymology	The specific name labyrinthicus is from Greek and means 'maze', in reference to the labyrinthine complex of the cephalic lateral-line sensory system.
Species Citation	Schedophilus labyrinthicus McAllister & Randall 1975, Publ. Biol. Oceanogr. 8: 1, fig. 1. Type locality: near Easter Island.
Author	Bray, D.J. 2020
Resources	Atlas of Living Australia Australian Faunal Directory Catalog of Fishes

Ocean Blue-eye Trevalla, Schedophilus labyrinthica (McAlister & Randall 1975)

References

Ahlstrom, E.H., Butler, J.L. & Sumida, B.Y. 1976. Pelagic stromateoid fishes (Pisces: Perciformes) of the eastern Pacific: kinds, distributions and early life histories and observations on five of these from the northwest Atlantic. Bulletin of Marine Science 26(3): 285-402. See ref online

Andrew, T.G., Hecht, T., Heemstra, P.C. & Lutjeharms, J.R.E. 1995. Fishes of the Tristan da Cunha group and Gough Island, south Atlantic Ocean. Ichthyological Bulletin of the J.L.B. Smith Institute, Grahamstown 63: 1-43 figs 1-34 pls 1-2

Last, P.R., Daley, R.K. & Duhamel, G. 2013. A review of the rudderfish genus Tubbia (Stromateoidei: Centrolophidae) with the description of a new species from the Southern Hemisphere. Zootaxa 3616(5): 461–477. (as Schedophilus labyrinthicus)

McAllister, D.E. & Randall, J.E. 1975. A new species of centrolophid fish from Easter Island and Rapa Iti Island in the South Pacific. National Museum of Canada Publications in Biological Oceanography 8: 1-7. See ref at BHL

McDowall, R.M. 1982. The centrolophid fishes of New Zealand (Pisces : Stromateoidei). Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 12(2): 103-142 figs 1-20 https://doi.org/10.1080/03036758.1982.10419436

Parin, N.V. & Piotrovsky, A.S. 2004. Stromateoid fishes (suborder Stromateoidei) of the Indian Ocean (species composition, distribution, biology, and fisheries). Journal of Ichthyology 44, Suppl. 1: S33-S62. (as a synonym of Schedophilus velaini)

Stewart, A.L., Last, P.R. & Struthers, C.D. 2015. 235 Family Centrolophidae, pp. 1648-1661 in Roberts, C.D., Stewart, A.L. & Struthers, C.D. (eds). The Fishes of New Zealand. Wellington : Te Papa Press Vol. 4 pp. 1153-1748.

Yearsley, G.K., Last, P.R. & Ward, R.D. (eds) 1999. Australian Seafood Handbook. Hobart : CSIRO Marine Research 460 pp. (as Schedophilus labyrinthicus)