Mojarra


The mojarras are a family, Gerreidae, of fish in the order Perciformes. The family includes about 53 species found worldwide in tropical and warm temperate regions. They mostly inhabit coastal salt and brackish waters, although some occur in fresh water.
Mojarras are a common prey and bait fish in many parts of the world, including the South American coast and Caribbean islands as well as the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast of North America. These species tend to be difficult to identify in the field and often require microscopic examination. Most species exhibit a schooling behavior and tend to exploit the shallow water refugia associated with coastal areas presumably to avoid large-bodied predators, such as the lemon shark.
Mojarra is also commonly used in Latin American countries as a name for various species of the cichlid family, including tilapia.

Genera

The seven genera currently assigned to this family are:

ImageSize = width:1000px height:auto barincrement:15px
PlotArea = left:10px bottom:50px top:10px right:10px
Period = from:-65.5 till:10
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:-65.5
ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:-65.5
TimeAxis = orientation:hor
AlignBars = justify
Colors =
#legends
id:CAR value:claret
id:ANK value:rgb
id:HER value:teal
id:HAD value:green
id:OMN value:blue
id:black value:black
id:white value:white
id:cenozoic value:rgb
id:paleogene value:rgb
id:paleocene value:rgb
id:eocene value:rgb
id:oligocene value:rgb
id:neogene value:rgb
id:miocene value:rgb
id:pliocene value:rgb
id:quaternary value:rgb
id:pleistocene value:rgb
id:holocene value:rgb
BarData=
bar:eratop
bar:space
bar:periodtop
bar:space
bar:NAM1
bar:NAM2
bar:space
bar:period
bar:space
bar:era
PlotData=
align:center textcolor:black fontsize:M mark: width:25
shift:

bar:periodtop
from: -65.5 till: -55.8 color:paleocene text:Paleocene
from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text:Eocene
from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text:Oligocene
from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text:Miocene
from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text:Plio.
from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text:Pleist.
from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text:H.
bar:eratop
from: -65.5 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:Paleogene
from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text:Neogene
from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text:Q.
PlotData=
align:left fontsize:M mark: width:5 anchor:till align:left
color:eocene bar:NAM1 from: -55.8 till: 0 text: Gerres
color:eocene bar:NAM2 from: -55.8 till: 0 text: Pentaprion
PlotData=
align:center textcolor:black fontsize:M mark: width:25
bar:period
from: -65.5 till: -55.8 color:paleocene text:Paleocene
from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text:Eocene
from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text:Oligocene
from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text:Miocene
from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text:Plio.
from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text:Pleist.
from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text:H.
bar:era
from: -65.5 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:Paleogene
from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text:Neogene
from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text:Q.