Jarbua terapon
(Terapon jarbua)

Terapon jarbua is a medium-sized grunter with an oblong body which is moderately laterally compressed. The oblique mouth is oblique with the jaws being of equal length and the maxilla reached the level of the front edge of the eye in juveniles and the centre of the eye in adults. It has conical, slightly recurved teeth which are set in bands with those in the outer rows being much enlarged, there are teeth on the roof of the mouth in juveniles but in many adults these are absent.

There are 11 or 12 spines in the dorsal fin and 9 to 11 rays, the spiny portion is strongly arched, with the fourth to sixth spines being the longest and has a deep notch. The anal fin has 3 spines and 7 to 10 soft rays while the caudal fin is emarginate. They have 75-100 pored scales in their lateral line.

They have a silvery white body which has 3 or 4 curved stripes from the nape to the rear of the body with the lowest stripe continues through the center of the caudal fin. There is a black blotch on the spiny part of the dorsal fin between the third and sixth spines and the tail is striped with a black tip to each lobe. This species sexual maturity after attaining a total length of 13 centimetres (5.1 in), they are most commonly recorded at total lengths of around 25 centimetres (9.8 in) and the longest recorded fish was 36 centimetres (14 in).

Terapon jarbua has a wide Indo-Pacific distribution which extends from the Red Sea and the coasts of eastern Africa as far south as South Africa through the Indian Ocean, including the Persian Gulf and into the Pacific Ocean as far east as Samoa, its range extends northwards to Japan and south to the Arafura Sea and Lord Howe Island.

A single specimen was reported in 2010 from the eastern Mediterranean Sea, a likely entry from the Suez Canal.