Chanos chanos (Fabricius, 1775)

Çiçek, Erdoğan, Jawad, Laith, Eagderi, Soheil, Esmaeili, Hamid Reza, Mouludi-Saleh, Atta, Sungur, Sevil & Fricke, Ronald, 2023, Freshwater fishes of Iraq: a revised and updated annotated checklist- 2023, Zootaxa 5357 (1), pp. 1-49 : 6

Chanos chanos (Fabricius, 1775) [N]—Milkfish

Taxonomy. Original description: Mugil chanos Fabricius in Niebuhr (ex Forsskål) 1775: 74, xiv [Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Red Sea (not Mediterranean Sea); holotype: ZMUC P17154 (dry skin)].—Iraq synonyms: None.— Revisions: None.—Illustration: Randall (2005: 60, fig.) .

Status in Iraq. First record from Iraq by Qasim et al. (2019).—Iraq materials: None.

Distribution and habitat. Distribution in Iraq: Shatt al-Arab River.—General distribution: Red Sea; Indo-Pacific: KwaZulu-Natal ( South Africa), East Africa, Persian Gulf, Seychelles, Madagascar, and Mascarenes ( La Réunion, Mauritius, and Rodrigues) east to Hawaiian Islands ( U.S.A.), north to southern Japan, south to Western Australia, New South Wales ( Australia) and Norfolk Island; eastern Pacific: southern California ( U.S.A.) south to northern Peru, including Galapagos Islands ( Ecuador); Mediterranean Sea immigrant.— Habitat: This species is a marine species that enters estuaries and rivers. It is a benthopelagic, amphidromous species that occurs in tropical waters between depths of 1 and 30 m. It is found in offshore marine waters and shallow coastal embayments; it also frequently enters estuaries and occasionally penetrates freshwater streams. Freshwater, brackish, marine.

Economic importance. Commercially important.

Conservation. Conservation status in Iraq: Unknown.—IUCN: LC (IUCN 2023).—Threats: COM, FIT.—Low sensitivity to human activities.—Not considered a keystone species.—Decline status: Unknown.—Low priority for conservation action.