Morphology Data of Opistognathus pardus
Identification keys
Abnormalities
Main Ref. Smith-Vaniz, W.F., K.K. Bineesh and K.V. Akhilesh, 2012
Appearance refers to
Bones in OsteoBase

Sex attributes

Specialized organs
Different appearance
Different colors
Remarks

Descriptive characteristics of juvenile and adult

Striking features
Body shape lateral elongated
Cross section oval
Dorsal head profile
Type of eyes
Type of mouth/snout
Position of mouth
Type of scales
Diagnosis

This species is distinguished by the following set of characters: rigid maxilla, no flexible lamina posteriorly; head mostly covered with small, irregular-shaped dark spots; D XI,11; total gill rakers 40-41; outermost segmented pelvic-fin ray is tightly bound to adjacent ray, with interradial membrane not incised distally (interradial membrane deeply incised in all other Indo-Pacific species except O. muscatensis Boulenger 1887) (Ref. 93143).

Ease of Identification

Meristic characteristics of Opistognathus pardus

Lateral Lines Interrupted: No
Scales on lateral line
Pored lateral line scales
Scales in lateral series
Scale rows above lateral line
Scale rows below lateral line
Scales around caudal peduncle
Barbels
Gill clefts (sharks/rays only)
Gill rakers
on lower limb 25 - 25
on upper limb 15 - 16
total 40 - 41
Vertebrae
preanal 10 - 10
total 26 - 26

Fins

Dorsal fin(s)

Attributes
Fins number 1
Finlets No. Dorsal   
Ventral  
Spines total 11 - 11
Soft-rays total 11 - 11
Adipose fin

Caudal fin

Attributes

Anal fin(s)

Fins number
Spines total 2 - 2
Soft-rays total 11 - 11

Paired fins

Pectoral Attributes  
Spines     
Soft-rays   22 - 23
Pelvics Attributes  
Position    
Spines     
Soft-rays   
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