Teira Batfish

Platax teira was first formally described as Chaetodon teira by the Swedish-speaking Finnish explorer, orientalist, naturalist Peter Forsskål with its type locality given as Al Luḩayyah on the Red Sea coast of Yemen. This species was designated as the type species of the genus Platax by Pieter Bleeker in 1876, Platax belongs to the family Ephippidae in the order Moroniformes. The specific name teira is a latinisation of the Arabic teyra the name given to the juveniles in Yemen.

Platax teira has a wide Indo-Pacific distribution from the Red Sea and East Africa to Papua New Guinea, north to the Ryukyu Islands, south to Australia. It has also been recorded in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand. It has been reported twice recently in the Mediterranean Sea, off Turkey and Israel. They are known to reside among floating seaweed, debris, and artificial reefs. The species occurs in shallow coastal habitats to deeper offshore.

Platax teira is an omnivore. It will eat plankton, sessile invertebrates, small invertebrates, and marine algae. The small juveniles stay among floating debris, forming aggregations as the individual fishes find each other. At larger sizes they increasingly become more pelagic and will form sizeable schools which shelter beneath large rafts of Sargassum that typically form following the wet season.

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They are a very peaceful and social fish and will form schools with others of their species. They should not be kept with very aggressive species that may harass them as juveniles. Teira batfish are usually rather small when first purchased, but they will rapidly outgrow a small home aquarium to reach a maximum size of 24".

Platax teira is caught using hook-and-line, palisade traps, spear, trawls and hand nets. The flesh is not valued and may have an excellent flavour or taste rank and weedy.