Largescaled terapon: Terapon theraps
Largescaled terapon: Terapon theraps

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).

_______________________________________________________

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.

 


Visited 957 times, 1 visits today | Have any fisheries relevant question?
Largescaled terapon, Terapon theraps Cuvier, 1829

Visitors' Opinions

Shams Galib

Shams works in freshwater ecosystems, primarily on fish diversity in terms of their availability, and richness; he is also interested in aquatic invasive species and their impacts on ecosystem. Email: thegalib@gmail.com. More...

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.