Animal Species:Australian Goatfish, Upeneus australiae (Kim & Nakaya, 2002)

Identification

The Australian Goatfish has five and six oblique black bars on the upper and lower caudal fin lobes respectively and seven first dorsal fin spines. Dorsally It is light brownish with white reticulations. The lower sides are white. There is a yellowish-brown stripe along the sides of the body.

Size range

It grows to about 9 cm in standard length.

Distribution

The species occurs in Australia and New Caledonia. In Australia, it is currently known from few locations off north-western Western Australia, Queensland and the Sydney-Wollongong region of New South Wales.

Distribution by collection data

Biomaps map of Australian Goatfish specimens in the Australian Museum collection.

What does this mean?

Habitat

It is a benthic species that occurs in shallow (<15 m) inshore waters often on sandy substrates.

Classification

Species:

australiae

Genus:

Upeneus

Family:

Mullidae

Order:

Perciformes

Class:

Actinopterygii

Subphylum:

Vertebrata

Phylum:

Chordata

Kingdom:

Animalia

What does this mean?

Further Reading

1. Hoese, D.F., Bray, D.J., Paxton, J.R. & G.R. Allen. 2006. Fishes. In Beesley, P.L. & A. Wells. (eds) Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Volume 35. ABRS & CSIRO Publishing: Australia. parts 1-3, pages 1-2178.
2. Kim B.-J. & K. Nakaya, K. 2002. Upeneus australiae, a new goatfish (Mullidae: Perciformes) from Australia. Ichthyological. Research. 49: 128-132.
3. Randall, J.E & M. Kulbicki. 2006. A Review of the Goatfishes of the Genus Upeneus (Perciformes: Mullidae) from New Caledonia and the Chesterfield Bank, with a New Species and Four New Records. Zoological Studies. 45(3): 298-307.

Mark McGrouther , Collection Manager, Ichthyology
Last Updated: 3 August 2009

Tags fish, ichthyology, Australian Goatfish, Upeneus australiae,