Common Name
Boga Grunt
Year Described
Poey, 1860
Identification
Dorsal Fin: XIV-XVII + II, 9
Anal Fin: III, 8-9
Pectoral Fin: 19-20
Lateral Line Scales: 80
Body slender and elongate. Mouth small and protractile. Soft dorsal and anal fins almost completely scaled. Scale rows under lateral line oblique to body axis.
Color
Body silvery with a yellow to bronze lateral stripe from eye to caudal fin. Several other thin dark stripes (often broken into spots) on the dorsal half of the body. Nose with a yellow wash. Fins dusky. Caudal fin with pale upper and lower margins.
Size
Common to 18cm TL. Maximum size to 25cm TL.
Habitat
Coral reefs from 15-50m. Forms small aggregations in open water. Planktivorous.
Range
S. Florida, the Bahamas, to the Lesser Antilles and Colombia to Brazil. Also Belize and Bermuda.
References
Lindeman, K.C. 2002. Haemulidae (pp. 1522-1550). In: Carpenter. 2002. The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Vol. 3: Bony fishes part 2 (Opistognathidae to Molidae). FAO Species Identification Guides for Fisheries Purposes. American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. FAO of the U.N., Rome.
Rocha, L.A., K.C. Lindeman, C.R. Rocha and H.A. Lessios. 2008. Historical biogeography and speciation in the reef fish genus Haemulon (Teleostei: Haemulidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 48(2008):918-928.
Other Notes
Formerly in the family Inermiidae as Inermia vittata. Genetic studies confirm this is a slender bodied species nested within the genus Haemulon (Rocha et al., 2008).