|
Related FAQs: Flying Gurnards, Related Articles: Lionfish & Their Relatives, the subfamily Choridactylinae (Inimicinae), Family Platycephalidae, the Crocodilefishes or Flatheads, Subfamily Synanceinae, the Stonefishes, Subfamily Tetraroginae, Sailback Scorpionfishes or Wasp Fishes, Family Triglidae, the Searobins or Gurnards, /A Diversity of Aquatic Life The Flying Gurnards, Family Dactylopteridae | 
| By Bob Fenner | Dactyloptena orientalis |
Family Info: Two genera, seven species. Distributed in the tropical Atlantic and Indo-Pacific. Walk on the bottom, where they hunt invertebrate food. Make noise by stridulating their hyomandibular bones. Seen more and more as aquarium specimens. Some to 50 cm. in length. | Dactyloptena orientalis (Cuvier 1829), the Oriental Flying Gurnard. Indo-Pacific; Red Sea, East Africa to Hawai'i, Tuamotus, Marquesas. To 40 cm. Demersal; lives on shallow sandy bottoms. Only member of genus found on oceanic islands. N. Sulawesi images. |  
|
| Bigger PIX: The images in this table are linked to large (desktop size) copies. Click on "framed" images to go to the larger size. |
%20MD.JPG) |
| Dactylopterus volitans (Linnaeus 1758), the Flying Gurnard. Eastern and western Atlantic coasts. To ninety cm. total length (most much smaller). Feeds primarily on benthic crustaceans, especially crabs, clams and small fishes. Aquarium images. |  
|
|
|
