Animalia Life

Liza grandisquamis
FAMILY
Mugilidae
TAXONOMY
Mugil grandisquamis Valenciennes, 1836, Gorйe, Senegal.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
French: Mulet йcailleux; Spanish: Liza escamuda.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Commonly reaches 9.8 in (25 cm) in standard length but may reach up to 15.7 in (40 cm) in fork length. Teeth on both lips are absent or are very small, well spaced, and positioned in a single row on the upper lip, or rarely, in two rows. The anal fin has three spines and nine soft rays in adults. There are 26–30 scales in a longitudinal series along the flanks. Body is darkish dorsally and slightly paler and silvery laterally and ventrally. The anal fin and lower lobe of the caudal fin may be yellowish.
DISTRIBUTION
West Africa from Senegal to the Republic of Congo.
HABITAT
Usually found in brackish waters covering muddy substrates, such as mangroves, creeks, estuaries, and inundated mudflats.
BEHAVIOR
Little is known.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Adults feed in schools, mostly at night, on particulate organic matter, mud, diatoms, algae, microarthropods, foraminiferans, and free-living nematodes. During the wet season fish take a greater proportion of fine organic material than coarser sands, because increased rainfall brings more fine allochthonous material into rivers and “washes” the sand sediments free of fine food material.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Populations from the Ebrie lagoon, Ivory Coast, do not show a seasonal spawning cycle; spawning occurs principally in the lagoon but also may occur in the sea.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not threatened.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
Small commercial and subsistence fisheries. A potentially important species for aquaculture.

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