Harpagifer antarcticus, Antarctic spiny plunderfish

Harpagifer antarcticus Nybelin, 1947

Antarctic spiny plunderfish
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Harpagifer antarcticus
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Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Perciformes/Notothenioidei (Icefishes) > Harpagiferidae (Spiny plunderfishes)
Etymology: Harpagifer: Greek, arpagifer, grappling hook, robbery, voracoius (Ref. 45335).

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Marine; demersal. Polar; 57°S - 67°S

Distribution Territories | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Southern Ocean: along the Atlantic coasts of the Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland, South Orkney and South Sandwich islands.

Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 9.5 cm SL male/unsexed; (Ref. 5191); max. reported age: 9 years (Ref. 5191)

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Depth range: 0-5 m on rocky bottoms. Usually under rocks; rarely under algal fronds. A specialized feeder on amphipods, mainly Gondogeneia antarctica. Feed on small crustaceans and common in littoral of all sub-Antarctic islands (Ref. 42041). Iteroparous and devotes a lot of time to parental care (Ref. 5191). Larval pelagic phase is long (Ref. 71843).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Hureau, J.-C., 1990. Harpagiferidae. p. 357-363. In O. Gon and P.C. Heemstra (eds.) Fishes of the Southern Ocean. J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology, Grahamstown, South Africa. 462 p. (Ref. 5191)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435: Version 2025-2)

Not Evaluated 

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless





Human uses

FAO - Publication: search | FishSource |

More information

Trophic ecology
Food items (preys)
Diet composition
Food consumption
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Ecology
Ecology
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Max. ages / sizes
Length-weight rel.
Length-length rel.
Length-frequencies
Mass conversion
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Maturity/Gills rel.
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References

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Internet sources

AFORO (otoliths) | Aquatic Commons | BHL | Cloffa | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes: genus, species | DiscoverLife | ECOTOX | FAO - Publication: search | Faunafri | Fishipedia | Fishtrace | GloBI | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | OneZoom | Open Tree of Life | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | Socotra Atlas | TreeBase | Tree of Life | Wikipedia: Go, Search |