Scatophagidae

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The scats are a small family, Scatophagidae, of fishes in the order Perciformes.

They are small fishes native to the Indian and western Pacific Ocean. The largest species reaches 38 cm in length. They are scavengers, feeding on algae and feces, hence their name, from Greek skatos meaning "feces" and phagein meaning "eat".

Species

There are four species in two genera.

Genus Scatophagus Cuvier in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1831
* Ruby or Green Scat, Scatophagus argus (Linnaeus, 1766).
* African Scat, Scatophagus tetracanthus (Lacépède, 1802).
Genus Selenotoca Myers, 1936
* Silver scat, Selenotoca multifasciata (Richardson, 1846).
* Selenotoca papuensis Fraser-Brunner, 1938.

References

["Scatophagidae"]. FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. January 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
[Scatophagidae (TSN 170319)]. Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 27 March 2006.

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