Scatophagidae
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 (Scatophagus argus)
|
||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
Scatophagus |
The scats are a small family, Scatophagidae, of fishes in the order Perciformes.
They are small fishes native to the Indian and western Pacific Ocean that have become common and popular in the aquarium trade in recent years. Although juvenile scats may live in a freshwater environment, adult scats prefer and do best in a brackish water environment with 3-4 teaspoons of salt per 2.5 gallons of water once they reach adulthood. The largest species reaches 38 cm in length and some have been known to live more than twenty years in captivity given the proper water conditions. They are scavengers, feeding on algae and feces, hence their name, from Greek skatos meaning "feces" and phagein meaning "eat". Ideal tank mates include: Puffers, Monos, Archers, and other Brackish water fish.
[edit] Species
There are four species in two genera.
- Genus Scatophagus Cuvier in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1831
- Genus Selenotoca Myers, 1936
- Silver scat, Selenotoca multifasciata (Richardson, 1846).
- Selenotoca papuensis Fraser-Brunner, 1938.
[edit] References
- "Scatophagidae". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. January 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
- Scatophagidae (TSN 170319). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 27 March 2006.
