Rhinopias

Tentacle -Dragon Head ( Rhinopias frondosa )

Fringe rockfish ( Rhinopias ) are bony fish of the family Scorpaenidae ( Scorpaenidae ). They come in the Indo-Pacific from South and East Africa, Mauritius, India, the coast of northern Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines prior to Japan, New Guinea, the Caroline Islands, Hawaii, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Easter Island. They live there well camouflaged in coral reefs, on overgrown with algae and seaweed soft soils and vegetated rocky reefs at depths up to 125 meters.

Features

Fringe dragon heads are 15 to 25 inches long. Your body is high backs and sides strongly flattened. The head profile is concave, the eyes protrude, the mouth is tilted upward. Head, fins and body are often provided with frangible, often branched skin tag, so that the contour of the fish dissolves and they look hairy or bristly. Their body color is very variable and can be red, orange, pink, violet, be green or brown. Many are additionally striped or marked with a dot or spot pattern. Despite the striking colors the fish in the colorful environment of a coral reef are well camouflaged and hard to discover among corals, sessile hydroids, sponges, algae and sea squirts.

The dorsal fin is supported by twelve spines and nine soft rays. The anal fin has three spines and five soft rays. The spines of dorsal, anal and pelvic fins are, as with all scorpion fish, provided with poison glands.

Way of life

Fringe rockfish feed as ambush predator of shrimp, crabs and other small crustaceans. They feed mainly at night. Despite their toxicity Fringe dragon heads of moray eels, groupers, ball and porcupine fish are eaten. You are probably sensitive to parasites and skin diseases and push their upper skin regularly.

Fringe rockfish spawn in the evening at dusk. Spawning is an unspectacular courtship advance. The spawn is deposited in open water while the fish bobbing a few inches above the seabed. The ejected Eiballen contains thousands of eggs and swells after spawning on a multiple of its original size. The hatched larvae initially pelagic life.

Species

  • Algae -Dragon Head ( Rhinopias aphanes ) Eschmeyer in Eschmeyer, Hirosaki & Abe, 1973
  • Rhinopias argoliba Eschmeyer, Hirosaki & Abe, 1973
  • Rhinopias cea Randall & DiSalvo, 1997
  • Esch Meyers scorpionfish ( Rhinopias eschmeyeri ) Condé, 1977
  • Rhinopias filamentosus ( Fowler, 1938)
  • Tentacle -Dragon Head ( Rhinopias frondosa ) ( Günther, 1892)
  • Rhinopias godfreyi Whitley, 1954
  • Xenop -Dragon Head ( Rhinopias xenops ) ( Gilbert, 1905)

Some of the described species probably represent only different color morphs or local forms another type dar.

Perciformes Genus Hydrozoa FishBase
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