Nurseryfish

Kurtus indicus, males

The Kurter ( Kurtus ( Gr. " kyrtos " = bent, with a hump ) ) are a genus of perch related fish ( Percomorphaceae ). The two species are isolated in the group and include a separate suborder and family at ( Kurtoidei or Kurtidae ).

Features

The high-backed fish have a laterally flattened body, which is covered with small cycloid scales, a very short lateral line organ and a large, slanting standing and occupied with narrow, slender, arranged in bands teeth mouth. Kurter have only one dorsal fin, the front, hartstrahlige section is reduced. The anal fin is elongated and has two hard jets and 31 to 47 soft rays, the pelvic fins have a hard and five soft rays. The caudal fin is deeply divided. The ribs are broad and encompass some of the swim-bladder. The bones of the operculum are very thin. On Vorkiemendeckel sit four spines.

The males of the Kurter have above the head of a bony, from the supraoccipital ( skull bone) and modified dorsal fin rays formed cusp, by which they carry around the relatively large, racemose attached to a twisted egg membrane eggs until hatching of fish larvae with it.

Species

• Australian Kurter ( Kurtus gulliveri ) Castelnau, 1878, lives in mangroves, estuaries and slow-flowing rivers in northern Australia and southern New Guinea, up to 63 inches long. Anal fin with 44 to 47 soft fin rays.
• Indian Kurter ( Kurtus indicus) Bloch, 1786, lives in the sea, brackish and fresh waters in the Indian Coromandel Coast to Borneo and China. It is only 12.6 inches long. Anal fin with 31 to 32 soft rays.

Outer systematics

The genus Kurtus is systematically isolated and part of their own family ( Kurtidae ) to. The Kurtidae family was originally provided in the order of Perciformes ( Perciformes ), a collective group that was not monophyletic insufficiently defined as originally constituted by derived features and security.

Comparative DNA sequence analysis revealed a relatively close relationship with the Grundelartigen ( Gobioidei ) and Cardinal perches ( Apogonidae ), the Christine Thacker and colleagues zuordneten the Kurter the order of the Gobiiformes. Ricardo Betancur -R. and employees on the other hand provide a new order that Kurti Formes, are united in the cardinal fish and Kurter as sister families. The Kurti Formes here are the sister group of the Gobiiformes and form with this series Gobiomorpharia. These relationships are confirmed by Thomas Near and colleagues in their procedures based on DNA sequence analysis study on the phylogeny of Acanthomorpha can of Fraser in his based on morphological Compare study on the relationship of Cardinal perches and Kurtern but not confirmed.