Roundface Batfish, Platax teira (Forsskål 1775)
Other Names: Circular Spadefish, Longfin Batfish, Round-faced Batfish, Spotbelly Batfish, Tail-fin Batfish, Teira Batfish
A Roundface Batfish, Platax teira, at the Ribbon Reefs, Queensland . Source: Will White. License: All rights reserved
Summary:
A large rounded silvery to greyish-brown batfish with a characteristic dark blotch below the pectoral fin, a dark vertical bar through the eye, a second bar through the pectoral fin, and yellow to blackish pelvic fins. Adults also have a low hump on the nape.
Very small juveniles are brownish and resemble floating leaves. Larger juveniles have the pelvic fins and anterior soft rays of the dorsal and anal fins very elongated - reaching to about the rear of the anal-fin base.
Video of a juvenile Roundface Batfish
Video of Roundface Batfish in Palau
Video of a cranky Roundface Batfish attacking a camera.
Very small juveniles are brownish and resemble floating leaves. Larger juveniles have the pelvic fins and anterior soft rays of the dorsal and anal fins very elongated - reaching to about the rear of the anal-fin base.
Video of a juvenile Roundface Batfish
Video of Roundface Batfish in Palau
Video of a cranky Roundface Batfish attacking a camera.
Cite this page as:
Bray, D.J. 2019, Platax teira in Fishes of Australia, accessed 24 Apr 2024, https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/Home/species/2210
Roundface Batfish, Platax teira (Forsskål 1775)
More Info
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Distribution |
Bunbury and offshore reefs of Western Australia, Ashmore Reef, Timor Sea, and around the tropical north to Bermagui, New South Wales; also Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the eastern Indian Ocean, and Norfolk Island in the Tasman Sea. Elsewhere, the species is widespread in the tropical Indo-West Pacific, from the Red Sea and East Africa east to the Solomon Islands, north to southern Japan, south to Australia, New Caledonia and northern New Zealand. Large adults inhabit protected reefs in sheltered bays and deeper offshore reefs to 70 m, occasionally forming large schools. Small juveniles resemble leaves and shelter amongst floating debris. Larger juveniles may form schools beneath Sargassum rafts. |
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Features |
Dorsal fin V-VI, 28-37, spines hidden in front margin of fin; Anal fin III, 22-28; Pectoral fin 16-18. Body deep, strongly compressed, head profile almost vertical, large adults (> 35 cm SL) with bony hump from top of head to interorbital region; five pores on lower jaw. Jaws with bands of slender, flattened, tricuspid teeth, the middle cusp slightly longer than lateral cusps; vomer with a few teeth, palatine teeth absent. |
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Colour |
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. |
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Feeding |
Omnivore - feeds on zooplankton, benthic invertebrates and algae. |
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Fisheries |
Of minor commercial importance in parts of its range. The long-finned juveniles are popular aquarium fishes. |
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Species Citation |
Chaetodon teira Forsskål, 1775, Descriptiones animalium: 60. Type locality: Lohaja, Red Sea. |
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Author |
Bray, D.J. 2019 |
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Resources |
Roundface Batfish, Platax teira (Forsskål 1775)
References
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