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Louvar
Luvarus imperialis Rafinesque, 1810
A Louvar at Sydney Fish Market. The fish was caught by commercial fishers off the New South Wales north coast and sent to Melbourne via the Sydney market. View larger image. Photo: Quality, Safety and Environmental Manager, Mark Boulter.
Lateral view of the head. Photo: Mark Boulter.
The Louvar has a stout oval-shaped body that tapers to a narrow caudal peduncle. It has a small mouth, and eyes that are positioned low on the head. The body is silver and the fins are pink.
The Louvar grows to 2 m in length and 150 kg in weight.
Females produce huge number of eggs. A 1.7 m long individual was estimated to contain 47.5 million eggs.
This species lives its entire life in the open sea. It occurs in tropical and subtropical waters of all oceans.
In Australia it is recorded from off northern to southern New South Wales.
View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.
The Louvar is also known as the Loo, Luvaru and Silver King. It is the only species in the family Luvaridae.
Related links
- View image of fish caught at Bronte Beach, NSW in 1993.
- View images of the fish washed up near Eden, NSW in 2006.
Further reading
- Johnson, G.D. & A.C. Gill. in Paxton, J.R. & W.N. Eschmeyer (Eds). 1994. Encyclopedia of Fishes. Sydney: New South Wales University Press; San Diego: Academic Press [1995]. Pp. 240.
- Nelson, J.S., 1994. Fishes of the World, third edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Pp: 600.
- Tyler, J.C., Johnson, G.D., Nakamura, I. & B.B. Collette. 1989. Morphology of Luvarus imperialis (Luvaridae), with a phylogenetic analysis of the Acanthuroidei (Pisces). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology. 485: 1-78.
