Species: Jordanella floridae, Flagfish

Jordanella floridae Goode & Bean, 1879

Flagfish

Body relatively 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; teeth 3-pointed, middle point longest, in a single row; dorsal fin with 1st ray short, thickened and spine-like, short based, 14-18 rays, at mid-body, its origin before anal fin origin; anal fin with 11-13 branched rays; pectoral fin short, 14-16 rays, low on side; pelvics small, 6 rays, on belly well behind pectoral base; tail fin bluntly rounded, 17-21 principal rays; body with large, smooth scales, 25-27 lateral rows; head scaly; slightly enlarged scale just behind upper corner of operculum; lateral line reduced to a series of pits along side of body.

Olivaceus, flank brassy to orange, pigment concentrated along rear edge of scales, forming well developed stripes in male; a dark vertical bar under eye; a large black spot on midflank under dorsal fin origin; juveniles and females with a small black ocellus at rear of dorsal fin; 4-5 dark bars or saddles on upper side.

Reaches 3.9 cm SL.

Shallow, heavily vegetated fresh to brackish water.

Depth range 0-1 m.

E and W coasts of Florida.