Species: Jordanella pulchra, Progreso Flagfish, Yucatan Flagfish

Jordanella pulchra (Hubbs, 1936)

Progreso Flagfish, Yucatan Flagfish

Body moderately deep and chubby; head flattened; snout short and blunt;front nostril not tubular; covering of eye not continuous with skin of head; mouth wide, oblique, at front, protrusible; no pores on chin; teeth 3-pointed; dorsal fin short based, 14-17 rays (1st ray not spine-like), at mid-body, its origin before anal fin origin; anal fin with 8-10 branched rays; pectoral fin short, 13-17 rays, low on side; pelvics small, 6-8 rays, on belly well behind pectoral base; tail fin bluntly rounded, 12-16 principal rays; body with large, smooth scales, 22-24 lateral scales; head scaly; slightly enlarged scale just behind upper corner of operculum; lateral line reduced to a series of pits along side of body.

Both sexes – with a dark oblique bar running down & forward under eye. Male: body with a dense pattern of irregular iridescent spots, blotches and dark bars that become more numerous and break up into a reticulated pattern with age; upper back with silver spots; a large black blotch on mid side below dorsal fin origin, which becomes disrupted by spots and reticulations with age; lower body with an orange tint, outer edges of dorsal, anal and pelvic fins orange; vertical fins speckled with dark, more so on the dorsal. Female pale brownish, with 6-7 darker bars that become narrower, more numerous and better defined with age; dorsal fin with a blackish streak along its base; tail fin with a dark bar at base. Juvenile: body with oblique, irregular dark bars that join dark saddles on back; a dark oblique bar from eye as in adult; no ocellus on rear of dorsal fin in juvenile or female.

Reaches 4.5 cm.

Fresh to brackish water.

Depth range: 0-1 m.

Yucatan Peninsula to Belize.