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croaker

 
Dictionary: croak·er
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(krō'kər) pronunciation
n.
    1. A croaking animal, especially a frog.
    2. A person who grumbles or habitually predicts evil.
  2. Any of various fishes, chiefly of the family Sciaenidae, that make croaking or grunting sounds.

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Columbia Encyclopedia: croaker
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croaker, member of the abundant and varied family Sciaenidae, carnivorous, spiny-finned fishes including the weakfishes, the drums, and the whitings. The croaker has a compressed, elongated body similar to that of the bass. The name describes the croaking or grunting sounds produced by members of most species, chiefly during the breeding season. Croakers are found in sandy shallows of all temperate and warm seas. They range in weight from the 1-lb (0.5-kg) Atlantic croaker to the 150-lb (68-kg) common drum. The Atlantic croaker, common from Cape Cod to Texas, is an important food fish. The spot-fin croaker is found in the Pacific. The drums, the largest and noisiest croakers, include the red drum, or channel bass, of which over 2 million lb (900,000 kg) are taken per year off Florida; the common, or black, drum, found from New England to the Rio Grande; and the freshwater drum, found in central North America. The whitings, or kingfishes, include the Northern, or king, whiting, or sea mink; the Southern kingfish, or king whiting; and the surf whiting and its Pacific counterpart, the corbina. All average 3 lb (1.4 kg) in weight and 2 ft (60 cm) in length. Croakers are bottom feeders; those mentioned above have sensitive chin barbels to aid in locating their prey. The weakfishes, named for their easily torn flesh, lack barbels; they are also called sea trout. The common weakfish, or squeteague, abundant along the Atlantic coast, grows to 12 lb (5.5 kg) in weight and 3 ft (90 cm) in length. The more southerly spotted weakfish is similar. The white sea bass, weighing up to 60 lb (27 kg), is a Pacific croaker found as far north as Puget Sound. The spot, a small croaker, is commercially important in Virginia and the Carolinas, where the annual catch is estimated at 10 million lb (4.5 million kg) or more. Croakers are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Osteichthyes, order Perciformes, family Sciaenidae.

WordNet: croaker
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has 2 meanings:

Meaning #1: the lean flesh of a saltwater fish caught along Atlantic coast of southern U.S.

Meaning #2: any of several fishes that make a croaking noise

Wikipedia: Sciaenidae
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Croakers and drums
Atlantic croaker, Micropogonias undulatus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Suborder: Percoidei
Family: Sciaenidae
Genera

See text.
Juvenile Spotted Drumfish, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
Adult and Juvenile Spotted Drumfish, St. Kitts

Sciaenidae is a family of fish commonly called drums, croakers, or hardheads for the repetitive throbbing or drumming sounds they make. The family includes the weakfish, and consists of about 275 species in about 70 genera; it belongs to the order Perciformes.

Sciaenids have a long dorsal fin reaching nearly to the tail, and a notch between the rays and spines of the dorsal, although the two parts are actually separate.[1] Drums are somberly colored, usually in shades of brown, with a lateral line that extends to the tip of the caudal fin. The anal fin usually has two spines while the dorsal fins are deeply notched or separate. Most species have a rounded or pointed caudal fin. The mouth is set low and is usually inferior.

They are found worldwide, in both fresh and saltwater, and are typically benthic carnivores, feeding on invertebrates and smaller fish. They are small to medium-sized bottom dwelling fishes that live primarily in estuaries, bays, and muddy river banks. Most of these fishes avoid clear waters such as coral reefs and oceanic islands with a few notable exceptions (i.e., Reef Croaker, High-hat, and Spotted Drum). They live in warm-temperate and tropical waters and are best represented in major rivers in S.E. Asia, Plymouth UK, N.E. South America, Gulf of Mexico, and Gulf of California.[1]

They are excellent food and sport fish and are commonly caught by surf and pier fishers.

The sounds are produced by the beating of abdominal muscles against the swim bladder.[1] (In the Mississippi Valley region of the U.S., there is a widespread but inaccurate belief that the drumfish makes the sounds by rattling two loose bones inside its cranium. There are, in fact, no such bones.)

Genera and selected species

References

  1. ^ a b c Johnson, G.D. & Gill, A.C. (1998). Paxton, J.R. & Eschmeyer, W.N.. ed. Encyclopedia of Fishes. San Diego: Academic Press. pp. 182. ISBN 0-12-547665-5. 
  • "Sciaenidae". FishBase. Ed. Rainer Froese and Daniel Pauly. May 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sciaenidae".  Read more