Preliminary guide to the identification of the early life history stages of Gerreid fishes of the Western Central Atlantic

Powell, Allyn B. and Greene, Michael D. (2000) Preliminary guide to the identification of the early life history stages of Gerreid fishes of the Western Central Atlantic. Beaufort,NC, NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service/Southeast Fisheries Science Center, (NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-SEFSC, 434)

Preview

PDF - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader Download (335Kb) | Preview

Abstract

The family Gerreidae contains four genera and 13 species that occur in the western central North Atlantic. Adult gerreids are small to medium size fishes that are abundant in coastal waters, bays, and estuaries in tropical and warm temperate regions and sometimes occur in freshwaters. They are generally associate~ with grassy or open bottoms, but not with reefs. Gerreids are silvery fishes, with deeply forked tails, and extremely protrusible mouth that points downward when protracted. They apparently feed on bottom-dwelling organisms and at least one species (Eucinostomus gula) shows a distinct transition, during the juvenile period, from a planktivore (exclusively copepods) to a carnivore that includes a diet of almost solely polychaetes (Carr & Adams, 1973; Robins and Ray, 1987; Murdy et al., 1997). (PDF contains 10 pages)

Actions (login required)