Whitefin Wolf Herring

Chirocentrus nudus have slender, elongated bodies, fang like canine teeth, and small scales. They can grow up to 100 cm (39 in) in length and around 410 g (14 oz) in weight. Compared to the closely related dorab wolf-herring (Chirocentrus dorab), C. nudus has a longer pectoral fin. • The dorsal fin has 16-19 rays while the anal fin has 29-36 rays. The pectoral fin is long, with a length greater than the distance from the centre of the eye centre to the edge of the operculum. The dorsal and anal fins colourless, with the distal part of dorsal fin being clear, and there is no black on the front part of the anal fin). There are bands of green and blue on the back.

Chirocentrus nudus is a coastal pelagic species with a wide Indo-Pacific distribution from the eaastern coast of Africa and Madagascar north to the Red Sea and the Seychelles around the Arabian Peninsula into the Persian Gulf and east innto the Pacific Ocean as fars as Australia and New Guinea, north to China.

Chirocentrus nudus is one of two species in the genus Chirocentrus, a name which compouns chiro, derived from the Greek from cheír or cheirós and meaning "hand", i.e. the pectoral fin, with kentron, meaning "a sharp point", an allusion to the long, bony appendage at the base of the pectoral fin of C. dorab. The specific name, nudus, means "naked", Swainson though this fish was scaleless but the scales are small and readily fall off.