Scorpaena papillosa, common name red rock cod is a venomous species of marine fish in the family Scorpaenidae, the "scorpionfish".

Common names

This species has numerous common names, including:

• Chained scorpionfish
• Common red gurnard
• Common red rock cod
• Dwarf scorpionfish
• Red rock cod
• Red scorpionfish
• Southern red scorpioncod
• Southern red scorpionfish
• Southern rockcod

Description

Scorpaena papillosa grows to a maximum length of approximately 30 cm. Its large mouth contains small, thin teeth that form velvety bands (villiform). It has 12 dorsal spines, 9 to 10 dorsal soft rays, 3 anal spines, 5 anal soft rays, a small row of spines beneath the eyes, and a gill cover margin containing 3 spines.

Distribution

This species is found in the Indo-West Pacific

Indo-West Pacific

The Indo-West Pacific, or IWP, is a zoogeographical region spanning the entire Indian Ocean including the Red Sea and the Pacific Ocean as far as the Caroline Islands but short of the Marshall Islands...

, in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 and southern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

Habitat

Scorpaena papillosa lives in marine, demersal, temperate waters, at depths of 5–50 m (16.4–164 ). It can be found on rocky bottoms, in shallow estuaries

Estuary

An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....

, in muddy waters as well as other environments, such as in offshore kelp beds and shallow seagrass beds. Juveniles of this species are sometimes found in large rock pools.

Diet

This fish feeds on many different invertebrate

Invertebrate

An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...

s, including crustacean

Crustacean

Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...

s. It also eats other fish.

External links

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