Family : Sparidae
Text © Giuseppe Mazza
English translation by Mario Beltramini
Often gregarious, Lithognathus mormyrus belongs to the Sparidae family, a group of fishes important for the human nutrition © Raimundo Fernandez Diez
Known also as Striped seabream, the Sand steenbras, Lithognathus mormyrus (Linnaeus 1758) belongs to the class of the Actinopterygii, the ray-finned fish, to the order of the Perciformes and to the family of the Sparidae that counts 38 genera and 163 species, mostly marine, present in warm temperate waters, sometimes even brackish.
Fishes important for human nutrition, with often prized flesh like the well known Gilt-head bream (Sparus aurata) that may reach 10 kg and 70 cm.
About 30 cm long, is recognized at first sight from the profile of the sharp snout and the silvery livery run by about fifteen vertical bands © François Libert
The name of the genus Lithognathus, created by Swainson in 1839, originates from the Greek “lithos”, stone, and “gnathus” jaw, due to the strong jaws of this fish, thick and hard, whilst the scientific term mormyrus, assigned by Linnaeus takes up the name used in the old times that still appears today in various languages.
Zoogeography
Lithognathus mormyrus is present in the eastern Atlantic, from Macaronesia and Biscay Gulf, France, up to South Africa. It is then found in Mozambique, in the Red Sea, and throughout the Mediterranean, but not in the Black Sea.
The thick and har jaws, a the scientific term Lithognathus states, are armed with more rows of teeth to seize and grind the preys © Giuseppe Mazza
Ecology-Habitat
The Sand steenbras can go down up to 150 m, usually moving on sandy bottoms between 10 and 20 m of depth or on the submerged prairies of Neptune grass (Posidonia oceanica).
When not too much caught it lives gregarious in schools, thicker in the juveniles who often grow in the backwash zone.
Morphophysiology
Present in East Atlantic, from France to South Africa, then in Mozambique, Red Sea and Mediterranean, often hunts on the sandy bottoms between 10 and 20 m of depth © Frédéric Ducarme
Lithognathus mormyrus reaches even the length of 55 cm, but the current size is about 30. The lateral line is marked and the scales are ctenoid.
Like most Sparidae, the body is tall, compressed laterally. It distinguishes due to the sharp snout with an almost straight profile. The eye is small, placed high on the head, very far from the slightly protractile mouth.
The teeth, aligned on more rows, are small and conical on the outer one for seizing the preys and then molariform to grind the preys. In fact, it feeds on benthic crustaceans, bivalves, sea urchins, starfishes, without forgetting small fishes and polychaete worms.
Here has caught a crustacean, but Sand steenbras eats also small fishes, bivalves, polychaete worms, sea urchins and starfish © Falk Viczian Solarboot-Projekte gGmbH
There is only one dorsal fin, relatively low, with 11 spine and 12-13 unarmed rays;the anal, of similar length, has 3 spiny rays and 10-11 soft; the pectoral ones have 15-17 rays and the pelvic are of modest size.
The livery is silver with golden metallic shades, and we note about fifteen vertical bands on the sides, with the long ones often alternated with the less marked short ones.
Ethology-Reproductive Biology
Like gilt-head bream is a protandrous hermaphrodite species with males that may turn into females, but also exist gonochoric ones that are as such since birth © Luis Pérez Berrocal
Lithognathus mormyrus reproduces from May to September. It is a species, like the Gilt-head bream, protandrous hermaphrodite, that is with males that while growing may transform into females. The sexual inversion occurs by the 4-9 years of age, when they reach 21-30 cm, but do exist gonochoric females, that is those who are already born female and remain as such.
The tiny eggs are abandoned to the currents and the resilience is mediocre with a minimum time for doubling the populations of 1,4-4,4 years.
Young often grow in the backwash zones, then forming large schools, whilst the seniors often live alone © Falk Viczian Solarboot-Projekte gGmbH
Even if the flesh of the Sand steenbras is excellent and is caught with trammels, gillnets and line fishing for barbecues, the fishing vulnerability keeps moderate overall, marking 40 on a scale of 100, also because it often lives in protected areas.
This species that may reach the age of 12 years, consequently nowadays appears as “LC, Least Concern” in the IUCN Red List of the endangered species.
Synonyms
Sparus mormyrus Linnaeus, 1758; Pagellus mormyrus (Linnaeus, 1758); Pagellus goreensis Valenciennes, 1830.
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