Species: Serranus subligarius, Belted Sandfish, Belted Sandfish Bass

Serranus subligarius (Cope, 1870)

Belted Sandfish, Belted Sandfish Bass

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: 3-100 m.

N Carolina to Cuba.