Systematic position
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii (Ray-finned fishes)
Order: Perciformes (Perches)
Family: Terapontidae (Grunters or Tigerperches)
Genus: Terapon
Species: T. theraps
Synonyms
Eutherapon theraps (Cuvier, 1829)
Therapon nigripinnis Macleay, 1881
Therapon rubricatus Richardson, 1842
Common/local names
English: Banded grunter, Banded terapon perch and Largescaled terapon
Bangladesh: Barguni (বারগুনি)
Distribution: Indo-West Pacific (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991).
Conservation status: Not threatened in Bangladesh (IUCN Bangladesh, 2000).
Morphology: Oblong and moderately compressed body. Body with for longitudinal straight and board strips. Lobs of caudal fin with two bars and upper lobe with black tip. Lower opercular spine very long and extending clearly beyond edge of opercular flip.
46-56 lateral line scales; 6-8 rows of scales above lateral line and 14-16 rows below lateral line (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991; Huda and Haque, 2003).
Fin formula: D XI-XII 9-11; A III 7-9; P 14-15; V I 5 (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991)
Maximum lengths: 15 cm (Huda and Haque, 2003).
Habitats: Inhibits inshore waters, often in brackish water, particularly abundant at the mouth of the Ganga river (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991). Found in the Sundarban, Bangladesh (Huda and Haque, 2003). This species was recorded for the first time from the Mediterranean Sea by Lipej et al. (2008).
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REFERENCES
Cuvier G and Valenciennes A. 1829. Histoire naturelle des poissons. Tome troisième. Suite du Livre troisième. Des percoïdes à dorsale unique à sept rayons branchiaux et à dents en velours ou en cardes. Histoire naturelle des poissons. v. 3: i-xxviii + 2 pp. + 1-500, Pls. 41-71. [Cuvier authored volume. i-xxii + 1-368 in Strasbourg edition.]
Huda MS and Haque ME. 2003. Field Guide to Finfishes of Sundarban, Aquatic Resource Division, Sundarban, Sundarban Biodiversity COnservation Project, Bangladesh Forest Department, Khulna, Bangladesh, p. 150.
IUCN Bangladesh. 2000. Red book of threatened fishes of Bangladesh, IUCN- The world conservation union. xii+116 pp.
Lipej L, Mavrič B, ŽIža V and Dulčić J. 2008. The largescaled terapon Terapon theraps: a new Indo-Pacific fish in the Mediterranean Sea. Journal of Fish Biology, 73(7): 1819–1822.
Macleay W. 1881. Descriptive catalogue of the fishes of Australia. Part I. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales v. 5 (pt 3): 302-444.
Richardson J. 1842. Contributions to the ichthyology of Australia. [Continued from p. 31.]. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (New Series) v. 9 (no. 56): 120-131. [Continues in v. 10, p. 25.
Talwar PK and Jhingran AG. 1991. Inland Fishes of India and Adjacent Countries, Vol. II, Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi-Calcutta, pp. 812-813.
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