Common Name
Shortfin Searobin
Year Described
Jordan & Swain, 1885
Identification
Dorsal Fin: X, 12
Anal Fin: 10
Pectoral Fin: 13-14
Body elongate and slightly compressed rearward. Head is large, bony, and heavily sculptured with pronounced ridges and spines. Head relatively deep and wide. Duck-billed snout is long. Mouth is subterminal and large in size, containing bands of villiform teeth on the jaws, vomer, and palatines. Jaw reaches front of eye. No spines at nostrils. Preopercle and opercle usually bear strong spines. Preopercular spine barely reaches edge of opercle. Small 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 fanlike and rounded. Pectorals relatively tiny; when folded barely reach origin of anal fin. Two dorsal fins: one spiny and one soft rays. 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 scaled. Opercular membrane above spine partially scaled. Lateral line is continuous.
Color
Body and head silvery faint brownish or reddish blotching. Belly white. Dorsal fins translucent with faint pinkish or yellowish blotches or bands. Pectoral fin black with white markings and edging. Anal and pelvic fins pale. Caudal fin pale with a yellowish upper lobe, a brown lower lobe, and brown spots at the base.
Size
Maximum size to 18cm SL.
Habitat
Soft bottoms from 11-710m (usually 37-110m).
Range
North Carolina to French Guiana, including the continental Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. Not found in the Antilles.
References
McEachran, J. D. & J. D. Fechhelm. 2005. Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. Volume 2: Scorpaeniformes to Tetraodontiformes. University of Texas Press, Austin. i-viii +1-1004.
Richards, W. J. & G. C. Miller. 2003. Triglidae (pp. 1266-1277). In: Carpenter, K. E. (ed.) 2003. The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 2: Bony fishes part 1 (Acipenseridae to Grammatidae). FAO species identification guide for fishery purposes and American Society of Ichthyologist and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. FAO, Rome. v. 2: i-vii + 602-1373.
Other Notes
Unique among the larger W. Atlantic searobins in having very short pectoral fins.