Spadefish

Platax teira

Platax teira, known as the teira batfish, longfin batfish, longfin spadefish or round-faced batfish, is a marine ray-finned fish of the family Ephippidae, the spadefishes and batfishes. It occurs throughout the Indo-West Pacific.

Family

Ephippidae

Avg Size

50-60 cm

Habitat

The species ranges widely across the Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea and East Africa to Papua New Guinea, north to the Ryukyu Islands and south to Australia, where it occurs from the central Western Australian coast around the tropical north and down to southern New South Wales. It has also reached New Zealand's Bay of Islands, was reported from the Gulf of Mannar in India after the 2004 tsunami, and has twice been recorded in the Mediterranean off Turkey and Israel. Individuals often shelter among floating seaweed, debris and artificial reefs.

Behaviour

An omnivore, Platax teira eats plankton, sessile and small invertebrates, and marine algae. Small juveniles stay among floating debris, grouping together as separate individuals find one another, and as they grow they become increasingly pelagic, forming large schools that gather beneath the great rafts of Sargassum that typically build up after the wet season.

Where & When to See It

Shark Observatory

Spadefish

Where & When to See It

More Fish