Species: Rypticus bistrispinus, Freckled soapfish
Rypticus bistrispinus (Mitchill, 1818)
Freckled soapfish
Body elongate, very compressed; forehead oblique; 2 pairs of nostrils, anterior tubular; lower jaw projecting; rear of top jaw exposed when mouth closed, without accessory bone above it; no knob at front of chin; simple teeth in bands on jaws; gill opening restricted above, most of upper part of operculum bound to body by skin; preopercle and opercle each with 3 spines; 7-9 gill rakers; dorsal fin II, 24-27; anal fin 0, 15-17; median fins thick, fleshy; rounded tail and pectoral fins; scales imbedded.
A broad dark area that begins as a stripe through snout and eye and broadens and pales as it extends along upper back to rear of dorsal fin; pale yellowish grey below this stripe and pale grey on top snout, nape and upper back; many densely packed small dark brown spots that from a network pattern on head and body; front of dorsal pale, rear of dorsal and tail mid-brown.
Size: to 15 cm.
Inhabits sand, rubble and seagrass beds, where it uses dead conch shells and burrows under rocks; more common at islands than the continent.
Depth: 2-100 m.
South Carolina to southern Brazil.
High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
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- Marine
- Marine Only
- Inshore/Offshore
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- Inshore Only
- Inshore
- Water Column Position
-
- Bottom
- Habitat
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- Reef associated (reef + edges-water column & soft bottom)
- Bivalves & sea cucumbers
- Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
- Rocks
- Reef and soft bottom
- Corals
- Sand & gravel
- Reef (rock/coral/oyster)
- Submerged vegetation
- FishBase Habitat
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- Reef Associated
- Feeding Group
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- Carnivore
- Data
- Diet
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- Data
- Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
- Bony fishes
- Egg Type
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- Data
- Pelagic
- Pelagic larva
- Global Endemism
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- West Atlantic Endemic
- Greater Caribbean non-endemic
- All species.
- Regional Endemism
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- Continent
- All species..
- Island (s)
- Continent + Island (s)
- Also in Brazil
- Extends North of GC
- GC non-endemic
- Extends South of GC
- Extends N + S of GC
- Residency
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- Resident
- Climate Zone
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- Equatorial (0-10N, Costa Rica / Venezuela)
- Tropical (10-23N, Nicaragua / Cuba)
- Subtropical (23-35N, Florida / Carolinas / Bermuda)
- IUCN Red List
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- Least concern
- Listed
- CITES
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- Not listed
- Length Max
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- 15
- Depth Range Min
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- 2
- Depth Range Max
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- 100
