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The Harvestfish (Peprilus paru; formerly Peprilus alepidotus) is a species of the ray-finned fishes in the butterfish family, Stromateidae.

Description
The Harvestfish (also called the Star Butterfish and Dollarfish) is deep-bodied, round, and strongly compressed laterally with a forked caudal tail. It has long, curved, sickle-shaped fins dorsal and anal, lacks pelvic fins, a blunt snout, a small mouth, weak teeth, and lack a longitudinal keel. Harvestfish are usually silvery and iridescent, sometimes with a green tint on its dorsal half, with tinged yellow fins. They usually grow to about 18-30cm (7-12 inches) in length. Harvestfish have 2-5 total dorsal spines,38-47 total soft dorsal rays, 2-3 anal spines, and 35-45 soft anal rays. The Harvestfish also lacks the mucous pores situated below the anterior half of the dorsal that are conspicuous in the Gulf Butterfish(Peprilus burti).

Diet
Adults are predatory and feed on small fishes, invertebrates such as jellyfish, crustaceans, and worms. Juveniles are plankton feeders.

Habitat
The Harvestfish is a pelagic schooling fish found in subtropical waters in coastal bays and inshore waters over the continental shelf at moderate depths. Juveniles can be found in shallow coastal waters or near coastal estuaries. They are known for their habit of swimming under certain species of jellyfishes, where they find shelter and perhaps a food supply of small invertebrates that have become entangled in the tentacles, but they are also subject to fatal stings inflicted by these tentacles.

Reproduction and Life Cycle
The life cycle of a Harvestfish is Marine and Estuarine. . They spawn offshore in Spring and early Summer in the Chesapeake Bay region. Their eggs are pelagic and spherical with a diameter of about 1.0mm. During the larval stage of Harvestfish, the body is moderately deep with a round head and the body deepens early in development (about 30%-70% at juvenile stage), the gut becomes bulky with a posterior extension, then becomes compact and round, and fin rays begin to develop. In these larval stages, the pigmentation is two irregular rows of spots from the middle parts of flank from the head to the halfway point of tail, a few large spots cover gut, and there is no pigmentation on the posterior part between the dorsal and anal fins.

Distribution
The Harvestfish distribution is Western Atlantic, as well as the Northern Gulf of Mexico to Argentina. They can range from Florida to Venezuela, Trinidad, and Antilles. They have been found, but are not common, in the western Caribbean, although absent in the Bahamas.

Importance to Humans
This species is commercially harvested with otter trawls. Harvestfish are marketed fresh and frozen and exported predominantly to Japan.

Etymology
The genus name, Peprilus, is a Greek term, peprilos, or paprax, that represents the common name of a certain fish species from ancient Grecian cultures of Tracia, Greece. It is referenced in an a classical Greek book, "The History of Herodotus"