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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 |
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By Bob Fenner |
Dactyloptena orientalis
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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. |
 
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| 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. |
 
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