Fun Belted Sandfish Facts For Kids

Belted sandfish are fishes of the Atlantic Ocean found in the different ranges along the ocean. The coastal region near Veracruz and Madagascar reef contains few groups of this species.

Also, the southern coastal region of Cuba near the Caribbean sea is home to few of the fish. Apart from this, the belted sandfish, reef-safe fishes, are found in the Gulf of Mexico extending up to the Florida Keys.

They are creatures of depth and life tends to exist up to a depth of around 59 ft (18 m). They are known to have three different kinds of fins.

The three fins are known to have wavy bars instead of straight bars. Occasionally in some fish, instead of the bars, few spots or blotches can be seen but only near the caudal fin.

The pelvic fins are entirely black in color with stripes of white near the end or the edges. The bars present in the body can extend from the rear area up to the frontal zone along covering the rates with small blotches or spots.

If you liked reading this, you might want to read about blue catfish and Florida pompano.

Belted Sandfish Interesting Facts

What type of animal is a belted sandfish?

The belted sandfish (Serranus subligarius) of the western Atlantic coast region is a fish. They belong to the Serranus genus and are a member of a Serranidae family of fishes.

What class of animal does a belted sandfish belong to?

The belted sandfish (Serranus subligarius) belongs to the Actinopterygii class of animals. The sea bass belongs to the Serranidae subfamily and has the Chordata Phylum.

How many belted sandfishes are there in the world?

These marine species are listed under the Least Concern category by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Even though they are of the Least Concern at the moment, the exact population of this fish is not known as of now.

Where does a belted sandfish live?

This marine creature is mostly found in the western Atlantic Ocean range. The distribution of the fish is divided into three ranges throughout the Atlantic Ocean. The first range is known to extend towards North Carolina from the reef on the east coast of the United States. The coast is mainly towards the southern end.

What is a belted sandfish's habitat?

These fishes are mostly found in salty water. This salty water is known to be a mixture of sand and rubble.

This sand is home to these sea basses which are mostly located near the rocky areas along the jetties. Few artificial reefs are inhabited by fish as well. The depth favored by them usually goes down to 59 ft (18 m).

Who does belted sandfish live with?

Being a secretive fish in nature very little has been discovered regarding the living habits of this fish. According to a few sources, it was seen that this stubby sea bass mostly live alone and are majorly spotted during the nighttime.

How long does a belted sandfish live?

This marine sea bass is known to have a small lifespan that extends up to around five years on average.

How do they reproduce?

These creatures are solitary fishes and are seen alone and during the night hunting for food. They are hermaphroditic in nature which means that an individual fish has both the male and the female glands within themselves.

According to a few articles and researches, they are capable of fertilizing themselves.

Since very less is known regarding the process of life of these species, only the description of the three different types of reproductive processes is known. Based on these researches, only a few of the sea basses are found to behave like a female.

There are other fishes that are known as the streaker male and are dominantly found to behave like a male.

Smaller fishes are usually the females while the larger ones are the males. The streaker males are known to vary in terms of their sizes and are recognized by their opportunistic behavior to mating with a female.

What is their conservation status?

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), this marine stubby sea bass is listed under the Least Concern category. The exact trend of their population is not known.

Belted Sandfish Fun Facts

What do belted sandfish look like?

This fish is supposed to have a lateral-based long body. A significant description and feature of this fish is the pointed snout which is comparatively short than the rest of the body.

The middle spine is completely straight with three other additional spines that can be seen near the gill. Out of them, the dorsal fins have 10 spines along with 12-14 rays while the anal fins have three spines along with seven rays.

They have belted shade through the body which is mostly red and brown in color along with the head.

Some dark spots can also be spotted throughout the length of the body. The long stripe continues through the body length till the anterior portion.

The posterior portion has at least four to five dark stripes colliding with the dorsal fin and a prominent white bar can be seen as well. This white bar is present right in front of the dark one.

How cute are they?

Unlike yellow tang, these fishes are not very cute in their appearance. Since they are fish of the non-schooling predator range, they have a scary look that could be threatening to some extent.

How do they communicate?

Since very less is known about the fishes regarding their lifestyle and living habits, not much is known about the ways of communications that are adapted or executed by the species.

How big is a belted sandfish?

Although the exact weight is not known these fishes are not more than 3.9 in (10 cm) in length. They are very small in terms of length and are way shorter in length than an average bony fish.

How fast can a belted sandfish swim?

Although the exact speed of these fishes is not known, they are pretty fast in general. These fishes are great predators and their speed helps them to track and hunt down their prey.

How much does a belted sandfish weigh?

Since the lifestyle of this sea bass is pretty secretive in nature, the exact weight of the species is not known to scientists as of now.

What are the male and female names of the species?

Considering the fact, that these fishes are hermaphroditic in nature, no sex-specific name is assigned to them. They are usually referred to as the gender that the individuals belong to.

What would you call a baby belted sandfish?

Baby fishes are called fry.

What do they eat?

Being a creature of depth, these marine basses are carnivores by nature. They primarily feed on the crustaceans. These crustaceans are generally small and have a range from like amphipods, and gammarids to aquatic shrimps.

Are they poisonous?

These fishes are not poisonous by nature and do not cause any harm to humans. In fact, few of them are known to be good pets to humans and are not dangerous at all.

Would they make a good pet?

Considering the fact, that this stubby sea bass is from the regions including coast and reef, there are few of these species which are known to be kept in aquariums as pets by humans, unlike tang fishes.

Did you know...

The sandfishes hunt their prey through a strong suction leading to swallowing the food.

Do they bite?

There has been no information about the sandfish biting humans. Although these marine species are known to be great predators they do not bite their prey.

Do humans eat them?

There has been no information regarding this sea bass being edible to humans, so we are unaware of the facts which state whether humans eat this fish or not.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! Learn more about some other fish from our clownfish facts and jellyfish facts for kids.

You can even occupy yourself at home by coloring in one of our free printable a