Sandperch

The sandperches are a family, Pinguipedidae, of ray-finned fishes in the percomorph order Labriformes. Sandperches are benthic fish which normally occur over sand or rubble substrates in shallow seas. They are found off the coasts of South America, South Africa and in the Indo-Pacific as far east as Japan. The family contains a few species which are used by humans for food.

Sandperches
Speckled sandperch, Parapercis hexophtalma
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Labriformes
Suborder:	Uranoscopoidei
Family:	Pinguipedidae Günther, 1860
Genera
See text
Synonyms[1]
Parapercidae

Characteristics

Some sandperches resemble wrasse in that they possess long dorsal and anal fins which may have a few spines and enlarged lips that appear to curl back with big canine teeth in the front of the jaws. They have elongated bodies which are flattened posteriorly and cylindrical towards the head. The body usually patterned with spots and bands, The eyes are positioned near top of head. They are relatively small in size, normally 60–90 centimetres (24–35 in) in length. These fish tend to sit on the sea bed, their bodies propped up by the widely separated pelvic fins. Some of the members of the speciose genus Parapercis, maybe all of them, are sequential hermaphrodites, all being female at sexual maturity and later changing into males which frequently have significantly different colourings and markings.^{[2] [3]}

Genera

The family Pinguipedidae contains seven genera with a total of 65 species. The genera are:^[1]

• Kochichthys Kamohara, 1961
• Parapercis Bleeker, 1863
• Pinguipes Cuvier in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1829
• Prolatilus Gill, 1865
• Pseudopercis Miranda Ribeiro, 1903
• Ryukyupercis Imamura & Yoshino, 2007.^[4]
• Simipercis Johnson & Randall 2006.

Timeline