| Infantfishes | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Perciformes |
| Family: | Schindleriidae |
| Genus: | Schindleria Giltay, 1934 |
| Species | |
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See text. |
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Schindleria, is a genus of marine fish. It is the only genus of family Schindleriidae, among the Gobioidei of order Perciformes. The type species is S. praematura, Schindler's fish. The Schindleria species are known generically as Schindler's fishes or infantfishes. They are native to the southern Pacific Ocean, from the South China Sea to the Great Barrier Reef off eastern Australia.
The infantfishes are so called because they retain many of their larval characteristics. Their elongate bodies are transparent, and many of the bones never develop. S. praematura reaches a length of 2.5 cm (1.0 in).
All of the Schindleria species are reef fishes. They may be among the most common fish of the reefs, based on the results of plankton tows, but because of their transparency and small size, they are infrequently seen in life.
A recently-described species, the stout infantfish, S. brevipinguis, was briefly the world's smallest known vertebrate at 8 mm (about one-third inch), smaller even than the dwarf gobies, until the new record was set by the 7.9 mm Paedocypris progenetica in early 2006.
There are apparently several (at least eight) further Schindleria species, native to the Ryukyu Islands, which have yet to be described formally.