Heteropriacanthus Explained

Heteropriacanthus, the glasseyes or glass bigeyes, are a genus of the bigeye family found in all tropical seas around the world. It occasionally makes its way into the aquarium trade. It grows to a size of 50.7cm (20inches) in total length.

The glasseyes has been classified in a single species, Heteropriacanthus cruentatus,^[1] but recent morphological and genetic analysis indicates that glasseyes may be better divided into three species: Heteropriacanthus cruentatus (Atlantic Ocean and southwest Indian Ocean), H. fulgens (northeastern Atlantic), and H. carolinus (Indo-Pacific).^[2] H.cruentatus can differentiated from the rest of its genus by looking at its caudal and anal fin in which is distinct in colour.^[3]

Notes and References

1. Starnes, W. C., 1988. Revision, phylogeny and biogeographic comments on the circumtropical marine percoid fish family Priacanthidae. Bulletin of Marine Science, 43 (2): 117-203.
2. I. Fernandez-Silva and H.-C. Ho, 2017. Revision of the circumtropical glasseye fish Heteropriacanthus cruentatus (Perciformes: Priacanthidae), with resurrection of two species. Zootaxa 4273 (3): 341–361.
3. Gaither . M. R. . Bernal . M. A. . Fernandez-Silva . I. . Mwale . M. . Jones . S. A. . Rocha . C. . Rocha . L. A. . September 2015 . Two deep evolutionary lineages in the circumtropical glasseye Heteropriacanthus cruentatus (Teleostei, Priacanthidae) with admixture in the south-western Indian Ocean: two deep lineages in circumtropical heteropriacanthus cruentatus . Journal of Fish Biology . en . 87 . 3 . 715–727 . 10.1111/jfb.12754. 26333139 .