Common Name
Barred Searobin
Year Described
Ginsburg, 1950
Identification
Dorsal Fin: X, 12
Anal Fin: 11-13
Pectoral Fin: 14-15
Gill Rakers: 8-11 (usually 9)
Body elongate and slightly compressed. Head is large, bony, and heavily sculptured with pronounced ridges and spines. Head relatively elongated. Duck-billed snout is long. Mouth is subterminal and small in size, containing bands of villiform teeth on the jaws, vomer, and palatines. Jaw reaches well short of eye. 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 almost perfectly semicircular (broadly rounded). Pectorals when folded reach anterior third of anal fin base. Two dorsal fins: one spiny and one soft rays. Anal fin opposite soft dorsal fin. Caudal fin is truncate or slightly rounded. Pelvic fin underneath pectoral fin on belly. Body covered in small ctenoid scales with the exception of the naked ventral surface. Throat scaled. Nape scaled. Opercular membrane above spine partially scaled. Lateral line is continuous.
Color
Body pale brown with numerous dark brown spots on body and head. Usually displays a few dark oblique bands formed from larger blotches. Flanks with elongated vertical blotches forming a banded pattern. Spiny dorsal with small spots between spines 1-2 and 4-5. Dorsal fins pale with brown spots forming spot-bands across fins. Pectoral fins brown or blackish with dark brown spots and/or crossbands. Anal fin pale with a darker margin. Pelvic fin pale. Caudal fin faintly banded with a dark basal area and thicker brown rear margin. Spots present on the dorsal half.
Size
Maximum size to 18cm SL.
Habitat
Soft bottoms from 11-110m (usually 18-37m).
Range
Gulf of Mexico from SW Florida 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.
Other Notes
A poorly known species that shares some coloration aspects in common with Prionotus scitulus like the two spots on the dorsal fin and spots on the top half of the tail.