Koheru
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| Koheru | ||||||||||||||
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.jpg/180px-Decapterus_koheru_(koheru).jpg) Photo by Ian Skipworth
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| Decapterus koheru (Hector, 1875) |
The koheru, Decapterus koheru, is a jack of the genus Decapterus, found only between the North Cape and the East Cape of the North Island of New Zealand, in mid-waters of reef and offshore areas. Its length is between 25 and 50 cm.
The koheru is a streamlined cylindrical-shaped schooling fish, with pelagic keels on each side of the thin caudal peduncle edged with a row of sharp scutes. The mouth has minute teeth in the flexible jaws allowing the mouth to form a plankton sucking tube.
Koheru are electric blue on the back tinged with green, and silver-white on the belly with a prominent yellow stripe running along the back and on to the caudal peduncle. The stripe can be suppressed by the fish at will. When a koheru school is threatened by a large predator it often dives and uses the reef for protection - unusual behaviour for schooling fish.
[edit] References
- Decapterus koheru (TSN 168732). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved on 18 April 2006.
- "Decapterus koheru". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. January 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
- Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand, (William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1982) ISBN 0-00-216987-8
- Wade Doak, A Photographic Guide to Sea Fishes of New Zealand, (New Holland Publishers (NZ) Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 2003) ISBN 1-877246-95-6
