Mugilidae
by A. Ben-Tuvia
Body elongate, more or less cylindrical. Head broad, flattened on top; mouth small, teeth in jaws feeble or absent, premaxillae protractile; eyes partly covered by adipose tissue in some species; gillrakers numerous, slender, increasing in number with size of fish. Two dorsal fins, well separated, the first with 4 slender spines, the second with 1 spine and 8 soft finrays; pectoral fins set quite high on body; pelvic fins inserted midway between pectoral base and origin of first dorsal fin; caudal fin forked. Scales on head and body large, cycloid or ctenoid, some with 1 or more rows of striae; no lateral line (its sense organs in pits or grooves on scales).
Medium-sized euryhaline fishes (25-100 cm in Clofnam area), usually in schools in coastal waters, entering lagoons, estuaries and rivers for feeding, but spawning in sea. Feeding on minute plants, invertebrates and detritus by filtration through the gillrakers; a gizzard present. Eggs and larvae pelagic. Of considerable economic importance.
Genera 14; in Clofnam area 4.
Recent revisions: Thomson (1964 worldwide), Thomson and Ingham (MS—worldwide); in addition to works given in Clofnam, see BenTuvia (1973, 1975), Tortonese (1975), Thomson (1981), Zismann (1981).