Houndfish

The houndfish (Tylosurus crocodilus) is a game fish of the family Belonidae. It is the largest member of its family, growing up to 5 feet (1.5 m) in length and 10 pounds (4.5 kg) in weight. It is also often called the crocodile needlefish.

Houndfish
Illustration from The Bahama Islands by The Geographical Society of Baltimore 1905.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Beloniformes
Family: Belonidae
Genus: Tylosurus
Species:
T. crocodilus
Binomial name
Tylosurus crocodilus
(Péron & Lesueur, 1821)
Synonyms[2]
  • Belone crocodilus Péron & Lesueur, 1821
  • Strongylura crocodila (Péron & Lesueur, 1821)
  • Strongylura crocodilus (Péron & Lesueur, 1821)
  • Belone coromandelica van Hasselt, 1823
  • Belone timucoides van Hasselt, 1824
  • Belone raphidoma Ranzani, 1842
  • Strongylura raphidoma (Ranzani, 1842)
  • Tylosurus raphidoma (Ranzani, 1842)
  • Belone gigantea Temminck & Schlegel, 1846
  • Strongylura gigantea (Temminck & Schlegel, 1846)
  • Tylosurus giganteus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1846)
  • Belone annulata Valenciennes, 1846
  • Tylosurus annulatus (Valenciennes, 1846)
  • Belone gerania Valenciennes, 1846
  • Belone melanurus Bleeker, 1849
  • Belone cylindrica Bleeker, 1850
  • Belone crassa Poey, 1860
  • Belone melanochira Poey, 1860
  • Belone koseirensis Klunzinger, 1871
  • Tylosurus gladius Bean, 1882
  • Esox aaveri Curtiss, 1938

Description

While the houndfish has no spines, its dorsal fin has 21–25 soft rays, and its anal fin has 19–22.[2] They are also known to have 80–86 vertebrae.[2] A key way of distinguishing the houndfish from other members of the genus Tylosurus is that the houndfish's teeth point anteriorly when the fish is a juvenile. The teeth of other species are straight at all ages.[3] The houndfish also has a more stout, cylindrical body and a shorter head than other needlefishes.[2] They have dark blue backs and silver-white sides and are plain white ventrally.[4] A houndfish has a distinct keel on the caudal peduncle, and the caudal fin itself is deeply forked.[2] Juvenile houndfish possess an elevated, black lobe on the posterior of their dorsal fins.[2] The longest recorded houndfish was 150 centimetres (4.9 ft),[5] and the largest recorded weight was 6.35 kilograms (14.0 lb).[6]

Taxonomy

Two subspecies of the houndfish were recognised:[7]

  • Tylosurus crocodilus crocodilus (Péron & Lesueur 1821)
  • Tylosurus crocodilus fodiator Jordan & Gilbert 1882

However, Fishbase now recognises T.c. fodiator as a valid species, Tylosurus fodiator, the Mexican needlefish.[8]

The houndfish was described as Belona crocodila by François Péron and Charles Alexandre Lesueur in 1821 with the type locality given as Mauritius.[9]

Distribution and habitat
Houndfish (top) illustrated with several other known fishes of the Philippines.
Tylosurus crocodilus crocodilus near Réunion.

In the Indian and Pacific Oceans, houndfish are found in the Red Sea and from the coast of South Africa,[4] east to French Polynesia,[10] and north to Japan,[11] and south to New South Wales, Australia.[12] The houndfish is replaced by the Mexican needlefish, in the eastern Pacific.[2] Houndfish are known from New Jersey to Brazil in the west Atlantic,[13] and in the east, they are found from Fernando Poo, Cameroon, and Liberia to Ascension Island.[14] Houndfish can also be found near Guinea, Senegal [15] and Cape Verde.[16] It has been recorded in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, having moved from the Red Sea via the Suez Canal as part of the Lessepsian migration.[17]

A pelagic animal,[18] houndfish can be found over lagoons and seaward reefs either as individuals or small groups,[2] where they feed mainly on smaller fishes.[19] Houndfish lay eggs which attach themselves to objects in the water via tendrils on the surface of each egg[20]

Relationship to humans
A houndfish caught via use of artificial lights at night.

Houndfish are considered to be gamefish, and can be caught by use of artificial lights, in a similar manner to other needlefishes. Although Houndfish are considered good to eat, and are usually sold fresh, the market for them is small because their flesh has a greenish colour similar to that of the Flat needlefish.[21] The IGFA world record stands at 4.88 kg (10 lbs 12 oz) and was caught off of Goulding Cay, Bahamas in 2013 by angler Daniel John Leonard using a live pilchard as bait.[22]

Houndfish are considered to be dangerous, and are feared by fishermen because of their size and tendency to leap out of the water, causing puncture wounds with their beaks, when frightened or attracted to the lights used to catch them.[2] In April 2000, a woman snorkeling in the Florida Keys was severely injured when she was stabbed in the neck by a houndfish that leapt out of the water.[23] In October, 2010 an ocean-kayaker was injured when she was struck in the back (and was treated for a collapsed lung) by the beak of a houndfish that jumped out of the water near her boat.[24]

References
  1. Collette, B.B.; Acero, A.; Polanco Fernandez, A. & Aiken, K.A. (2015). "Tylosurus crocodilus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2015: e.T183274A15602960. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-4.RLTS.T183274A15602960.en.
  2. Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2009). "Tylosurus crocodilus" in FishBase. 03 2009 version.
  3. Collette, B.B. 1999 Belonidae. Needlefishes. p. 2151-2161. In: K.E. Carpenter and V.H. Niem (eds.) FAO species identification guide for fishery purposes. The living marine resources of the Western Central Pacific. Volume 4. Bony fishes part 2 (Mugilidae to Carangidae). FAO, Rome.
  4. Collette, B.B. 1986 Belonidae p. 385-387. In M.M. Smith and P.C. Heemstra (eds.) Smiths' sea fishes. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
  5. Sommer, C., W. Schneider and J.-M. Poutiers 1996 FAO species identification field guide for fishery purposes. The living marine resources of Somalia. FAO, Rome. 376 p.
  6. IGFA 2001 Database of IGFA angling records until 2001. IGFA, Fort Lauderdale, USA.
  7. Bruce Baden Collette (2003). Family Belonidae Bonaparte 1832 needlefishes. Annotated Checklist of Fishes. 16. California Academy of Sciences. ISSN 1545-150X.
  8. Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2019). Species of Tylosurus in FishBase. April 2019 version.
  9. Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Belona crocodila". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  10. Randall, J.E. and Y.H. Sinoto 1978 Rapan fish names. B.P. Bishop Mus. Occas. Pap. 24(15:294-306.
  11. Masuda, H., K. Amaoka, C. Araga, T. Uyeno and T. Yoshino 1984 The fishes of the Japanese Archipelago. Vol. 1. Tokai University Press, Tokyo, Japan. 437 p. (text)
  12. Fricke, R. 1999 Fishes of the Mascarene Islands (Réunion, Mauritius, Rodriguez): an annotated checklist, with descriptions of new species. Koeltz Scientific Books, Koenigstein, Theses Zoologicae, Vol. 31: 759 p.
  13. Robins, C.R. and G.C. Ray 1986 A field guide to Atlantic coast fishes of North America. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, U.S.A. 354 p.
  14. Collette, B.B. and N.V. Parin 1990 Belonidae. p. 592-597. In J.C. Quero, J.C. Hureau, C. Karrer, A. Post and L. Saldanha (eds.) Check-list of the fishes of the eastern tropical Atlantic (CLOFETA). JNICT, Lisbon; SEI, Paris; and UNESCO, Paris. Vol. 2
  15. Diouf, P.S. 1996 Les peuplements de poissons des milieux estuariens de l'Afrique de l'Ouest: L'exemple de l'estuaire hyperhalin du Sine-Saloum. Université de Montpellier II. Thèses et Documents Microfiches No.156. ORSTOM, Paris. 267 p.
  16. Reiner, F. 1996 Catálogo dos peixes do Arquipélago de Cabo Verde. Publicações avulsas do IPIMAR No. 2. 339 p.
  17. Barbara Zorica; Vanja Čikeš Keč; Armin Palloro; et al. (2016). "First record of agujon needlefish, Tylosurus acus imperialis (Rafinesque, 1810) (Osteichthyes: Belonidae) in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea". Acta Adriatica. 57 (1): 183–186.
  18. Claro, R. 1994 Características generales de la ictiofauna. p. 55-70. In R. Claro (ed.) Ecología de los peces marinos de Cuba. Instituto de Oceanología Academia de Ciencias de Cuba and Centro de Investigaciones de Quintana Roo.
  19. Thollot, P. 1996 Les poissons de mangrove du lagon sud-ouest de Nouvelle-Calédonie. ORSTOM Éditions, Paris.
  20. Breder, C.M. and D.E. Rosen 1966 Modes of reproduction in fishes. T.F.H. Publications, Neptune City, New Jersey. 941 p.
  21. Cervigón, F., R. Cipriani, W. Fischer, L. Garibaldi, M. Hendrickx, A.J. Lemus, R. Márquez, J.M. Poutiers, G. Robaina and B. Rodriguez 1992 Fichas FAO de identificación de especies para los fines de la pesca. Guía de campo de las especies comerciales marinas y de aquas salobres de la costa septentrional de SAmérica. FAO, Rome. 513 p. Preparado con el financiamento de la Comisión de Comunidades Europeas y de NORAD.
  22. "IGFA WORLD RECORD". igfa.org. International Game Fish Association. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  23. Danielson, Richard (19 April 2000). "Leaping houndfish stabs teen in neck". sptimes.com. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  24. McMaster, Nick (19 Oct 2010). "Beware Houndfish: They Stab People". Newser.com. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
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