Scatophagidae

Scats; Temporal range: Eocene–Recent PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
	Scatophagus argus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Scatophagidae
Genera
	Scatophagus; Selenotoca; See text for species.

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

They are small fish native to the Indian and western Pacific Oceans that have been popular in the aquarium trade in the last 30 years. Although juvenile scats may live in a freshwater environment, most adult scats prefer a brackish water environment. However, the African scat, Scatophagus tetracanthus, can and does live in fresh water in the wild. The largest species reaches 38 cm in length and some have been known to live more than 20 years in captivity given the proper water conditions. They are scavengers, feeding on algae and feces, hence their name, from Greek skatos meaning "feces" and phagein meaning "eat".

Species

The four species in two genera are:

Genus Scatophagus Cuvier in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1831
- Scatophagus argus – common scat, green scat, ruby scat
- Scatophagus tetracanthus – African scat (Lacépède, 1802).
Genus Selenotoca Myers, 1936
- Selenotoca multifasciata – silver scat (Richardson, 1846).
- Selenotoca papuensis – moon scat Fraser-Brunner, 1938.

Scatophagus frontalis fossil

References

Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2006). "Scatophagidae" in FishBase. January 2006 version.
"Scatophagidae". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 27 March 2006.
Parenti, Paolo (February 2004). "Family Scatophagidae Bleeker 1876" (PDF). Annotated Checklists of Fishes (36). ISSN 1545-150X.

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