The Magnificence of Bonefishes

Friday, 13 April 2007

The bonefishes are one of the best-loved marine game fish that anglers would love to catch on a fishing sport because of their speed and strength. Bonefish is a common name given to a fish that attributes to any of the two species in the Albulidae family. They are so named as Albula vulpes, which are widely prominent in warm, not so deep marine waters and the Dixonina nemoptera found in the West Indies. The bonefishes are closely tied to the equally fast and strong tarpons and ladyfishes. The bonefishes are relatively found in South Pacific and the Bahamas.

A Bonefish is generally dust gray in hue, with an extremely elongated tail and a dorsal fin ; its head that is being covered by a very hard and thick visible cartilage and with its mouth that relatively has tiny teeth on it which is located below the snout. The back of the bonefish is rather unusual in color that turns to be bluish and at times turn green in color depending on the environment that it is into. The deep part of the ocean which where bonefishes are settling, does not allow for too much sunlight to pass through is one reason for the color morphing that happens with the bonefishes. The bonefishes are capable of breathing oxygen using an air bladder that is particularly a large, thin-walled sac functioning more than as a respiratory organ it also serves to maintain buoyancy and perfectly works as a sound producer and receptor. Although bonefishes inhabit mainly on coastal waters usually are in tropical seas, the bonefishes are particularly swarming on salty waters. Bonefishes may grow as big as 3.5 feet in length and can be as heavy as 18 pounds. Although, the world record for a largest bonefish that was ever caught was close to 17 pounds only which was recently recorded to be caught off from the ocean of Florida on March 2007. They generally love to settle and dwell on the lower part of a salty water where they feed on worms, mollusks, shrimps, crabs and other small organisms dwelling on their territory.

The bonefishes are generally spawning out of the salty water usually on full moon. The hatched eggs from the female bonefish are usually characterized by a small, flat head. The mating process that spawners perform is not as intricate as the other fishes in the ocean.

The number of bonefishes is not alarmingly low as the reproduction does not take much of a hazard. To date, even when the bonefishes are becoming popular favorites of the sport fishing hunters, there is no report of extinction or any threat due to a productive reproduction of the spawners and attributably because the caught bonefishes are immediately set free by sport fishing recreationalists to allow reproduction.

The bonefishes are truly attractive not only on their physical appearance, but also more notably, they exude attraction because they are relatively few in the family. Adding to their seemingly becoming little family are the spiny eels and halosaurs.