Bonefishes and Relatives: Albuliformes - Physical Characteristics

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The feature shared by bonefishes and their relatives, the halosaurs (HAH-leh-sawrs) and the spiny eels, is an open canal, or a tube-shaped passage, in the lower jaw that is an extension of the series of pores and tiny tubes along each side of a fish's body used for sensing vibrations (vie-BRAY-shuns). Bonefishes have a long, thin body that tapers, or gets thinner, at each end. The relatives are eel shaped with a very long anal (AY-nuhl) fin, the fin that runs along the bottom of the body, and no tail fin. Most bonefishes and their relatives are 3.3 feet (1 meter) long or shorter.