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Sharptail Sunfish
Masturus lanceolatus (Liénard, 1840)
N. Slater with a 1.7 m long Sharptail Sunfish washed up on a beach near Robe, South Australia, August 2007. Photo © N. Slater. View larger image.
A Sharptail Sunfish washed up on a beach near Robe, South Australia, August 2007. (AMS I.44396-001 - muscle tissue) Photo © N. Slater. View larger image.
A Sharptail Sunfish washed up on a beach at Honjo, Akita Prefecture, north-western Honshu, Japan, January 2005. Photo © H. Sugiyama. View larger image.
A larval Sharptail Sunfish at Ani-jima Island, Ogasawara Islands, Japan, May 2003. Photo © Y. Morita. View an image of the captured fish.
A juvenile Sharptail Sunfish trawled at a depth of 40 m, Coral Sea of north-east Queensland, May 1995 (AMS I.43072-003). The arrow points to the projection from the clavus. Photo: A. Hay © Australian Museum. View larger image. View larger image of projection from clavus.
The Sharptail Sunfish has a deep compressed body with the dorsal and anal fins positioned posteriorly. The teeth in both jaws are fused into beak-like plates.
Adults are uniform brown or greyish. Larvae are blue above and white below.
The species resembles the Ocean Sunfish and the Southern Ocean Sunfish, but can be distinguished by the median projection from the clavus. The projection is relatively longer in juveniles (see lower images). The clavus margin is not scalloped.
The Sharptail Sunfish grows to 3 m in length.
There is still much to learn about the distribution of the Sharptail Sunfish. It probably occurs worldwide in temperate and tropical marine waters.
In Australia it has been recorded in the literature from eastern South Australia to south-western Western Australia. The fish in the lower images was caught in the Coral Sea off north-eastern Queensland.
The species has also called the Point-tailed Sunfish and Trunkfish.
Related links
- Ocean Sunfish fact sheet
- Larval Ocean Sunfish fact sheet
- Ocean Sunfish stranding fact sheet
- View a Slender Sunfish
- Southern Ocean Sunfish fact sheet
- View the family Molidae list
- View the Sunfishes list
Further reading
- Glover, C.J.M. in Gomon, M.F., Glover, C.J.M. & R.H. Kuiter (Eds). 1994. The Fishes of Australia's South Coast. State Print, Adelaide. Pp. 992.
- Hutchins, J.B., 2001 Molidae. Molas (ocean sunfishes). in Carpenter, K.E. & V.H. Niem (Eds). FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. Volume 6. Bony Fishes part 4 (Labridae to Latimeriidae), estuarine crocodiles, sea turtles, sea snakes and marine mammals. FAO, Rome. Pp. iii-v, 3381-4218.
