Blue moki

Taxobox
name = Blue moki
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Actinopterygii
ordo = Perciformes
familia = Latridae
genus = "Latridopsis"
species = "L. ciliaris"
binomial = "Latridopsis ciliaris"
binomial_authority = (Forster, 1801)

The blue moki, "Latridopsis ciliaris", is a trumpeter of the genus "Latridopsis", found off southern Australia and New Zealand from shallow rocky or sandy areas at depths to 50 m. Its length is between 50 and 90 cm and it can weigh over 10 kg.

The blue moki is a large fish with a notch in the dorsal profile just above the eyes, long low dorsal and anal fins, a deeply forked tail, and comparatively small pectoral and pelvic fins.

Body colour varies with age, being olive-green in young fish, and changing through green-grey to a blue tinged grey in large adults. Colour on the back and head is darker than the flanks and belly and there is a pale line along each scale row.

Blue moki take a wide range of invertebrate food, including crabs and other crustaceans, sea urchins, worms, and molluscs.

They are caught commercially.

References

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* Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, "Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand", (William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1982) ISBN 978-0-00-216987-5