Common Name
Caribbean Searobin
Year Described
Miller, 1965
Identification
Dorsal Fin: X1, 11-12
Anal Fin: 11-12
Pectoral Fin: 12
Lateral Line: 95-112
Body stout but elongate and slightly compressed rearward. Head is large, bony, and heavily sculptured with pronounced ridges and spines. Head relatively deep with very large protruding eyes. Duck-billed snout is short. Snout with short and blunt spiny plates but no projections beyond tip of snout. Spines around nostrils. Mouth is subterminal and small in size, containing bands of villiform teeth on the jaws, vomer, and palatines. Jaw falls short of anterior orbit. Spine in front of eyes. Prominent cirri behind eyes. Preopercle and opercle usually bear strong spines. Preopercular spine reaches edge of opercle but is not longer than opercular spine. Moderate fan-like pectoral fins with strongly branched rays, with the lower three rays free, thickened, and separate from the fin membrane. Pectoral fin viewed from above broadly rounded. Pectorals when folded reach anterior third of anal fin base. Two dorsal fins: one spiny and one soft rays. First dorsal spine long and filamentous (males only). Anal fin opposite soft dorsal fin. Caudal fin is truncate. Pelvic fin underneath pectoral fin on belly. Body covered in small ctenoid scales with the exception of the naked ventral surface. Nape and opercular membrane naked. Lateral line is continuous.
Size
Maximum size to 12cm SL.
Habitat
Soft bottoms from 40-232 (usually 64-183m).
References
Miller, G. C. & W. J. Richards. 1991. Revision of the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific genus Bellator (Pisces: Triglidae). Bulletin of Marine Science v. 48 (no. 3): 635-656.