Author: Bloch, 1795
Galeoides decadactylus Bloch, 1795
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Galeoides decadactylus (Bloch, 1795) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body moderately elongate, somewhat compressed; body depth about 2.9-3.4 times in SL. Mouth inferior, the overhanging snout blunt; maxilla barely reaching past eye, its postenor edge only slightly expanded. Two widely separated dorsal fins, the first with 8 feeble spines and the second with 1 spine and 13 or 14 soft rays; anal fin with 3 spines and 11 or 12 soft rays; length of second dorsal and anal fin bases about equal; pectoral fins low on body, with 9 or 10 detached threadlike lower rays. Lateral line scales 45-46. Colour: dull silvery, brownish to green on back shading to whitish ventrally; large, round, dusky blotch below lateral line at level of first dorsal fin, its diameter about equal to eye diameter. Size: to 45 cm, usually to 30 cm.
Habitat: bottom fishes on sandy grounds. Shallow inshore waters close to sandy beaches, down to 50 m depth. Frequently found in brackish habitats (estuaries). Food: no data. Reproduction: no data. Commercial importance: caught with beach-seines, gillnets and in shallow trawl hauls along Atlantic tropical coasts. Sold fresh, dried salted or smoked.
Distribution: known from western coast of Africa; sporadically known from North Africa (Agadir, Tangier, Oran); generally occurs only between the Canary Is. and Angola.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. No data on eggs; larvae: Aboussouan, 1966b: 1037-1040, fig. 1-5.
Otoliths (sagitta). Schmidt, 1968: 27, pl. 5 (fig. 64).