Kelpies

About this species

Aplodactylus arctidens, the marblefish or southern seacarp, is a species of marine ray finned fish, one of the marblefishes belonging to the family Aplodactylidae. It is found in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Aplodactylus arctidens”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 128 records
February: 102 records
March: 172 records
April: 127 records
May: 83 records
June: 127 records
July: 27 records
August: 16 records
September: 23 records
October: 77 records
November: 124 records
December: 93 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 5–26 m · Deepest record: 52.5 m

0–10 m: 336 records
10–20 m: 126 records
20–30 m: 71 records
30–40 m: 13 records
40–50 m: 0 records
50–60 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 14–21 °C

12–14 °C: 39 records
14–16 °C: 416 records
16–18 °C: 167 records
18–20 °C: 10 records
20–22 °C: 1 records

Photos

(c) Jenny Saito, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Jenny Saito, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Zara, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Lisa Bennett, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Luca Davenport-Thomas, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) M Rutherford, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Shaun Lee, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Kelpies, Marbled Kelpfish, Marblefish, Sea Carp, Southern Sea Carp, Stinky Groper

Other scientific names: Aplodactylus meandratus, Aplodactylus schauinslandii, Dactylosargus arctidens, Dactylosargus meandratus, Haplodactylus arctidens, Haplodactylus donaldii, Haplodactylus meandratus, Haplodactylus schauinslandii, Sciaena maeandratus

Similar species

Cockatoo Fish
Aplodactylus lophodon
Aplodactylus etheridgii
Cockatoo Morwong
Aplodactylus westralis

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
1,120 open-data records from 1903 to 2023.
Species data updated October 27, 2026.