Silver Moony

• The juveniles grow up in almost fresh water inside the mangroves, and the adults move out into coastal seawater.
• Its almost circular outline and mirror-silver colour make it practically invisible from below among the reflections of the surface.
• It is truly euryhaline: juveniles live in the almost fresh stretches of rivers and adults move out to sea, crossing the full salinity gradient of an estuary.
• Its body is rhomboidal and strongly compressed, silvery with two dark bands crossing the head and eye, a pattern that breaks up its outline and throws predators off.
• It forms large schools among mangrove roots, where it finds shelter and food.
• It is common in the aquarium hobby, but it needs brackish water to thrive and does not do well in fresh water in the long term, something that is frequently overlooked.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bony fish)

Habitat and environment

Mangroves, estuaries and river mouths of the Indo-Pacific

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Monodactylus argenteus