Banjos banjos

Banjos banjos has a deep and strongly compressed body with a steep head and an almost straight dorsal profile. The dorsal fin has 10 flattened spines and 12 soft rays while the anal fin has 3 spines with the second being far longer the others, the anal fin also contains 7 soft rays.The caudal fin is slightly emarginate, It has a compete and continuous lateral line.[2] In colour it is silvery white to greyish-brown, fading towards the belly, the anterior part of the head is blackish with whitish lips. The second dorsal fin has a white margin and a sizeable, circular black blotch to the front. The caudal fin has a wide brown submarginal band. Smaller fishes show a number of ill-defined dark stripes on their flanks and a large black spot on the base of the tail.[3] The maximum recorded standard length is 20 centimetres (7.9 in)>[1]

Banjos banjos is found in the Indo-West Pacific region from the south eastern Indian Ocean off Western Australia through Indonesia and the South China Sea to Japan.[1]

Banjos banjos is an inshore species which can be found at depths between 50–400 metres (160–1,310 ft).[1]

Banjos banjos was first formally described as Anoplus banjos in 1846 by Scottish naval surgeon, naturalist and arctic explorer Sir John Richardson (1797-1865) with the type locality given as the Sea of Japan. B. banjos was previously considered to be the only species in the family Banjosidae but in 2017 Matsunuma & Motomura described two new species, the East Australian banjofish (Banjos acuteatus) and the Timor Sea banjofish (Banjos peregrinus) and a new subspecies of B. banjos (see below).[4]

There are two recognised subspecies of Banjos banjos:[3]

• Banjos banjos banjos (Richardson, 1846) - the nominate subspecies from the western Pacific
• Banjos banjos brevispinis Matsunuma & Motomura, 2017 - from the Indian Ocean, called the Western Australian banjofish.