Pineapplefish

Facts about the Pineapplefish, it is a class of fish that belongs to the Cleidopus genus of the Monocentridae family. The binomial name of the fish is Cleidopus gloriamaris and it is the only member of the Cleidopus genus. The Pineapplefish is also commonly called the coat-of-mail fish or the knightfish, owing to the shield-like scales casing its body. The Pineapplefish is sometimes called the port-and-starboard light fish because it contains a couple of bioluminescent organs, which are reminiscent of direction-finding lights on ships. The Pineapplefish is indigenous to coastal waters of Western Australia and Queensland, New South Wales. The Pineapplefish can be seen at a depth that ranges from 20 feet to 656 feet (6 meters to 200 meters) in harbors and reefs.

The Pineapplefish is capable of growing to a maximum length of 8.7 inches (22 cm). The Pineapplefish has a fleshy, rounded body approximately completely covered in big, coarse scales with the piercing backward-pointing spines. The head of the Pineapplefish is huge, with mucous pits surrounded by jagged ridges, and is shielded with heavy bone. It has a blunted nose that projects from its wide mouth. The Pineapplefish has small and thin teeth, available on its jaws, vomer and palatine.

The Pineapplefish is seen with two pits holding bioluminescent microbes on its lower jaw close to the corners of its mouth that are hidden when its mouth is closed. This photophore is green in color in juvenile fish and turns into more red color while it grows.

The primary dorsal fin of the Pineapplefish is made up of 5 to 7 physically powerful spines and the spines are lacking a membrane and point left and right in an alternative fashion. The next dorsal fin of the Pineapplefish includes 12 soft rays. Every pelvic fin of the fish contains a huge spine, almost as long as its head, and 3 to 4 elementary rays. The pelvic spine of the Pineapplefish can be locked vertical at a right angle to its body. The anal fin of the Pineapplefish contains 11 to 12 anal fin rays and the its pectoral fins contains 14 to 15 pectoral fin rays. Due to the small fins and inflexible armor, the Pineapplefish is not a good swimmer. The Pineapplefish is a nocturnal fish species, and it may be seen inside the caves and beneath the rock-strewn ledges during the daytime.

The Pineapplefish has yellow to whitish scales with black color back margins, forming the arresting outline. The chin, lips and parts of the jaw of the Pineapplefish are black in color and there is a red streak on its lower jaw passing to the photophore.

The Pineapplefish is extremely similar to the pinecone fish species of the Monocentris genus, and is positioned in that genus by some writers. This Pineapplefish species differs from the Monocentris genus ones in having a slender preorbital bone and in the arrangement of its light organs, which are close to the tip of the lower jaw in the Monocentris fish species. This fish species, as well, differs from the Japanese Pineapplefish in Japan in having a more round nose.

As the Pineapple fish hides itself during the daytime, in the wild, it comes out during night hours to feed on little shrimp that swim down over the sand in the water.

The average lifespan of the Pineapplefish ranges from 8 years to 10 years, whereas in the captive, they can live more than 10 years.