Golden threadfin bream facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Golden threadfin bream |
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The golden threadfin bream, also known as the yellowlipped threadfin bream, is a type of fish that lives in the ocean. It's a ray-finned fish, which means its fins are supported by bony rays. This fish belongs to a group called threadfin breams. You can find it in the western part of the Pacific Ocean.
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About the Golden Threadfin Bream
How Scientists Name Fish
Scientists give every living thing a special two-part name. For this fish, its scientific name is Nemipterus virgatus. A Dutch naturalist named Martinus Houttuyn first described this fish in 1782. He first called it Sparus virgatus. He found it in Japan.
This fish belongs to the Nemipteridae family. This family is part of a larger group called the Spariformes order.
What Its Name Means
The second part of the fish's scientific name, virgatus, means "striped." This is a good name because the golden threadfin bream has yellow stripes. These stripes run along its upper body and sides.
What Does It Look Like?
The golden threadfin bream is a colorful fish. Its upper body is pink, and it gets lighter towards its belly. It has a bright yellow stripe on its back, just above its lateral line. It also has five more yellow stripes along its sides. The fish's chest and belly are white.
Its head is pink, with a yellow stripe from its upper lip to its eye. Sometimes, it has two faint yellow bars on its cheeks. The eye is a pretty rosy color, and its upper lip is yellow.
Its dorsal fin (on its back) is light pink with a wide yellow edge. This edge has a red line at the front. The anal fin (on its belly) is a bit see-through and pinkish. It has a yellow stripe near its edge.
The caudal fin (tail fin) is pink and has a yellow upper edge. The upper part of its tail fin is longer, like a thread. Its pelvic fins are pinkish with a yellow line. The pectoral fins are also pinkish and a bit see-through.
This fish can grow up to about 35 centimeters (14 inches) long. But most of the time, they are around 23 centimeters (9 inches) long.
Where Does It Live?
The golden threadfin bream lives in the western Pacific Ocean. You can find it in places like southern Japan and the East China Sea. It also lives in the northern South China Sea, from Vietnam to the Philippines. There's another group of these fish near northwestern Australia.
These fish live on the ocean floor, usually over sand or mud. They can be found at depths from 1 to 220 meters (3 to 720 feet). They usually prefer depths between 18 and 33 meters (59 to 108 feet). Younger fish tend to live in shallower water than adult fish.
Life and Reproduction
The golden threadfin bream is a special kind of hermaphrodite. This means that even the males have some female parts (ovarian tissue) in their bodies.
In the South China Sea, these fish lay their eggs between February and June. The busiest time for laying eggs is from February to April.
What do they eat? They like to munch on smaller fish, crustaceans (like shrimp), and cephalopods (like squid).
Fishing and Protecting Them
The golden threadfin bream is an important fish for people who fish for a living. They are caught in the East China Sea and South China Sea. Fishermen use different methods like handlines, longlines, and bottom trawls to catch them. Young fish are often caught by accident in shrimp nets.
Sadly, the number of these fish caught each year has gone down. Between 2000 and 2010, the catch dropped by 30%. Because of this, the IUCN (a group that tracks endangered species) has listed the golden threadfin bream as a Vulnerable species. This means they need our help to protect them.
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