Girella laevifrons

Girella laevifrons is a marine fish of the southeastern Pacific that, according to FishBase, lives in Peru and Chile and reaches 38.3 cm in total length ^[1]. WoRMS accepts it as a valid species, described by Tschudi in 1846 and now placed in the family Girellidae, although the Peruvian and Chilean studies cited here treat it in Kyphosidae ^[2],[3]. On the Peruvian coast it is found from the Guañape Islands, at 8° S, to Tacna ^[3]. It is a fish of shallow rocky areas with omnivorous habits, and its culture has been tested in Peru ^[3].

In Peru it has been recorded from the Guañape Islands (8° S) to Tacna, and in Chile it is a fish well represented in the shallow rocky intertidal zones of the north and centre of the coast ^[3]. FishBase summarises its range as the southeastern Pacific, Peru and Chile ^[1].

Authors of a study of this species in Chile note that adults live in subtidal waters, and the juveniles were studied in the intertidal zone ^[4]. In Peru, 120 juveniles of 1 to 9 g were captured in October 2018 at San Bernardino beach, in Casma (Áncash), at 9° S ^[3].

In a study of several populations along the Chilean coast, juveniles from the south had the highest metabolic rate and condition factor, which the authors interpret as a physiological response to cold, linked to their later move to subtidal waters ^[4].

In captivity, Peruvian juveniles of 1.35 g and 0.99 g were kept for 92 days at a mean temperature of 21 °C (between 17 and 25 °C) and a salinity of 35; survival was 100 % and the specific growth rate ranged from 1.16 to 1.27 % per day ^[3]. Weight gain was 190 to 225 % and the final mean weight was a little over 3 g, slower growth than that of Graus nigra in another study ^[3].

It is described as an omnivorous fish ^[3], although the work on Peruvian fingerlings attributes herbivorous habits to it ^[5]. According to Chilean studies summarised in that work, the green alga Ulva appears in 46.3 % of stomachs (frequency of occurrence), and another study places it at between 12.36 and 18.26 % of the diet, with an assimilation rate of 75 % ^[5].

In a 30-day trial with 120 fingerlings of 0.458 g, the best weight gain (112 %) came with 30 % Ulva lactuca meal in the diet, compared with levels of 15 and 45 % and a control without algae ^[5],[3].

According to FishBase (Red List version 2025-2), the species has not been assessed globally ^[1].

Its flesh is white and firm, and the authors of the 2024 study regard it as an important resource for artisanal fishers, based on a personal communication cited in that work ^[3]. In Peru it is being evaluated as a candidate for mariculture because of its low trophic level diet, and the 2019 trial with fingerlings reached 50 % survival with the best diet ^[3]. In 2024, another trial reached 100 % survival in juveniles of 1.35 g and 0.99 g ^[3].

The Peruvian literature consulted places the species from the Guañape Islands to Tacna and associates it with shallow rocky zones; the juveniles studied in 2018 were captured at San Bernardino beach, in Casma ^[3].