Common Name
Bigeye Searobin
Year Described
Teague, 1951
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 long. Mouth is subterminal and large, containing bands of villiform teeth on the jaws, vomer, and palatines. Jaw reaches front of orbit. No spines at nostrils. Preopercle and opercle usually bear strong spines. Preopercular spine reaches 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 rounded with flattened front and rear edges. Pectorals when folded reaches middle of anal fin base. 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 gray, brown, to reddish-brown grading to pale whitish on the belly. Markings usually indistinct mottling. No bands. Spiny dorsal with a ocellated spot between spines 4-5. Dorsal fins brown to reddish with darker spotting along rays and faint oblique banding across membranes. Pectoral fins blackish with blue spots over most of the fin and a thick blue border on the anterior half of the fin margin. Free pectoral rays reddish. Anal fin pale reddish with a black median band. Pelvic fin pale whitish or reddish. Caudal fin reddish to brown with indistinct banding and a slightly darker rear margin.
Size
Maximum size to 35cm SL.
Habitat
Soft bottoms from 9-219m (usually 9-91m).
Range
Gulf of Mexico from SW Florida to the Bay of Campeche.
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.