Species: Serranus subligarius, Belted sandfish
scale edges v dark, form lines
front soft D black blotch
Serranus subligarius (Cope, 1870)
Belted sandfish
Body elongate, moderately compressed; snout shorter than eye; rear of top jaw exposed when mouth closed, without accessory bone above it; 3 opercular spines well developed, middle spine straight; preopercle regularly serrated, no spur with enlarged spines; gill rakers 15-19; dorsal fin X, 12-14; anal fin III, 7; pelvics inserted before pectoral base; pectoral fin 15-17; tail fin with bluntly straight edge, 13-15 branched rays; scales very rough, relatively large, 6-7 rows of scales on cheek; 42-46 pored lateral line scales; top of head without scales.
Head and body red-brown; lines formed by dark spots on body scales; a dark stripe through eye extends back to front of body; rear of body with 4 dark bars that extend onto dorsal fin, the first bar very prominent, extends onto the front of the soft dorsal as a large black blotch; a bright white bar on mid belly immediately before the first dark bar; dorsal, anal and tail fins with irregular thin brown bars; sometimes a pair of large black spots on base of tail fin; dorsal, tail and anal fins with lines of small dark spots; pelvics black, with white front borders.
Reaches 10 cm.
Rocky areas and sand and rubble; usually in silty areas.
Depth range: 3-80 m.
N Carolina to Cuba.
High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
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- Marine
- Marine Only
- Inshore/Offshore
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- Inshore Only
- Inshore
- Water Column Position
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- Bottom
- Habitat
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- Reef associated (reef + edges-water column & soft bottom)
- Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
- Rocks
- Reef and soft bottom
- Corals
- Sand & gravel
- Reef (rock/coral/oyster)
- FishBase Habitat
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- Reef Associated
- Feeding Group
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- Planktivore
- Data
- Carnivore
- Diet
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- Data
- Zooplankton
- Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
- Bony fishes
- Egg Type
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- Pelagic
- Pelagic larva
- Data
- Global Endemism
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- West Atlantic Endemic
- Greater Caribbean non-endemic
- All species
- Regional Endemism
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- All species
- GC non-endemic
- Extends North of GC
- Continent
- Island (s)
- Continent + Island (s)
- Continental primarily
- Residency
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- Resident
- Climate Zone
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- Tropical (10-23N, Nicaragua / Cuba)
- Subtropical (23-35N, Florida / Carolinas / Bermuda)
- IUCN Red List
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- Listed
- Least concern
- CITES
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- Not listed
- Length Max
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- 10
- Depth Range Min
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- 3
- Depth Range Max
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- 80
