Redbanded perch

Taxobox
name = Redbanded perch


image_caption = Photo by Ian Skipworth
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Actinopterygii
ordo = Perciformes
familia = Serranidae
genus = "Hypoplectrodes"
species = "H. huntii"
binomial = "Hypoplectrodes huntii"
binomial_authority = (Hector, 1875)

The redbanded perch, "Hypoplectrodes huntii", is a sea bass of the genus "Hypoplectrodes", found in south eastern Australia, and the North Island and north of the South Island of New Zealand, at depths of between 5 and 100 metres. Its length is between 10 and 20 cm.

The redbanded perch has a pointed snout and strong spiny dorsal fin typical of serranids. Their colouring is variable. Inshore specimens are orange on the back and whitish beneath with a green tinged head, with a a series of 7 vertical red-brown bars on the back and flanks and orange fins. Around the offshore islands the basic body colour is pale yellow on the back and white on the belly with red-orange bars and yellow fins.

While the sexes appear identical, they are sequential hermaphrodites beginning life as females and changing to males after 2 or 3 years. They breed from September to December.

The redbanded perch is territorial, staying close to the bottom and staying within a small home range being seen resting on the same spot year after year. They are carnivores and eat mainly bottom-living amphipod crustaceans and mysid shrimps.

References

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* 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