Species: Cubanichthys cubensis, Cuban Killifish

Cubanichthys cubensis (Eigenmann, 1903)

Cuban Killifish

Body moderately deep and chubby; head flattened, but with an enlarged crest on back of skull; snout short and blunt; front nostril not tubular; covering of eye not continuous with skin of head; mouth wide, oblique, at front, protrusible; teeth 1-pointed, in at least 2 rows; dorsal fin short based, 11 rays (2 rudimentary), at mid-body, its origin well before anal fin origin; anal fin 10-11, with all rays branched; dorsal and anal fins high and angular, last ray extended, enlarged in males; pectoral fin short, 18 rays, low on side; pelvics small, 6-7 rays, on belly well behind pectoral base; tail fin bluntly rounded; body with large, smooth scales, 24-26 scales in lateral series; head scaly; no enlarged scale just behind upper corner of operculum; lateral line reduced to a series of pits along side of body.

Grey brown above, pale below; female with black stripe from chin to eye; continuing to center of end of tail base, that bordered above and below by white; fins clear; male with similar brown stripe, that on body narrowly edged in blue-white; a dark spot edge with white behind corner of operculum; a blue-white stripe along upper body, 2 more along lower body; dorsal and anal fins yellow, with black edges, pelvics yellow; tail fin with at least 2 vertical rows of dark spots.

Reaches 8 cm.

Fresh to brackish water.

Depth range: 0-1 m.

Cuba.