Author: (Forsskål, 1775)
Siganus rivulatus (Forsskål, 1775)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Siganus rivulatus Forsskål, 1775 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body compressed, its depth 2.7-3.4 in standard length. Teetl in jaws in one series, incisor-like with lateral cusps. Gillrakers 18-19 + I + 5-6. D XIV + 10, longest dorsal spine shorter than distance from front of eye to rear edge of opercle, longest dorsal ray equal to or shorter than length of snout. A VII + 9; P 16; V I + 3 + I; caudal fin only moderately forked. Colour: variable, usually with some dark spots and golden undulating streaks along sides of the body, below lateral line. Size: to 40 cm SL, usually 10-20 cm.
Habitat: inshore waters, close to bottom in depths not exceeding 60 m. Found also in small numbers in hypersaline Bardawil Lagoon. Gregarious. Caught in some quantities in Israel and Lebanon in gill-nets, trammel-nets and beach-seines. Food: brown, red and green algae (Popper and Gundermann, 1975; Lundberg and Lipkin, 1979; Lundberg, 1981). Reproduction: mainly June-August (George, 1972; Popper, 1979 and unpublished). Minimum size at first spawning 148 mm at age of 2 years (Mouneimne, 1978).
Distribution: eastern Mediterranean, from Aegean Sea along the Anatolian coast of Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt up to Libya. A Suez Canal immigrant, known from Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. George, 1972: 32-43.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.