Common Name
Spiny Searobin
Year Described
Goode & Bean, 1883
Identification
Dorsal Fin: X, 12
Anal Fin: 10
Pectoral Fin: 13-14
Body relatively stout but elongate and slightly compressed . Head is large, bony, and heavily sculptured with pronounced ridges and spines. Head relatively deep. Duck-billed snout is relatively short. Mouth is subterminal and small in size, containing bands of villiform teeth on the jaws, vomer, and palatines. Jaw is well short of eye. Nostrils with small spines. Preopercle and opercle usually bear strong spines. Preopercular spine reaches beyond edge of opercle. Large, 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 squared off anteriorly and posteriorly, with a concave outer margin caused by lengthened rays on the anterior rays. Pectorals when folded reach base of tail with longest anterior rays but only to middle of fin with shorter rear rays. 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 tan with heavy dark brown mottling and spotting. Usually displays a distinct dark eyeband between and below eyes. Spots on body get larger and redder on the flanks and near the tail. Spiny dorsal fin with a black spot between spines 4-5. Dorsal fins pale with dark brown spotting on the rays/spines forming stripes on the fins. Pectoral fin with alternating whitish and dark brown crossbanding on the posterior 2/3 of fin. Anterior third more plain brown. Anal and pelvic fins pale with black peppering on rays. Caudal fin pale with a red-brown base and a thick reddish outer band.
Size
Maximum size to 20cm SL.
Habitat
Soft bottoms from 35-611m (usually 55-148m).
Range
Continental coasts from Virginia to the Yucatan Peninsula.
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.