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Species: Paralonchurus elegans, Blackfin Croaker

All Families:   All Genera:   All Species:

barbels: chin tuft 3 pr, lower jaws - 10-12 pr
gill rakers: 7-9 short, stour
pectoral reaches past A

Paralonchurus elegans (Boeseman, 1948)

Blackfin Croaker

Body elongate, moderately compressed; head long, low; eye small; snout ~conical, projecting beyond horizontal mouth; chin with 5 pores, 3 pairs of short barbells in a tuft around central pore & 10-12 pairs along inner edges of lower jaws; preopercle edge smooth; 7-9 short, stout gill rakers; top corner of gill opening notched; dorsal X-XI spines, 31-34 rays; pectoral fin long and pointed, reaches past anal fin base; anal fin with short base, II weak spines, 6-7 rays; tail fin long and asymmetrically pointed; scales smooth, none on dorsal fin; the lateral line extends to the center of the end of the tail fin.

Dark grey above, yellowish to pale below; pectoral fins jet black; inside gill cover black; tips of pelvics and anal dark.

Reaches 35 cm.

On mud bottoms of coastal areas, marine and brackish water.

Depth range: 1-30 m.

Venezuela to NE Brazil.


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Salinity
  • Brackish
  • Marine
Inshore/Offshore
  • Inshore
  • Inshore Only
Water Column Position
  • Bottom
Habitat
  • Sand & gravel
  • Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
  • Soft bottom only
  • Estuary
  • Mud
FishBase Habitat
  • Demersal
Feeding Group
  • Carnivore
  • Data
Diet
  • Data
  • Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
  • Mobile benthic gastropods/bivalves
  • Mobile benthic worms
Egg Type
  • Data
  • Pelagic
  • Pelagic larva
Global Endemism
  • All species
  • Greater Caribbean non-endemic
  • West Atlantic Endemic
Regional Endemism
  • Also in Brazil
  • Continent
  • Continent only
  • Extends South of GC
  • GC non-endemic
  • All species
Residency
  • Resident
Climate Zone
  • Equatorial (0-10N, Costa Rica / Venezuela)
IUCN Red List
  • Data deficient
  • Listed
CITES
  • Not listed
Length Max
  • 35
Depth Range Min
  • 1
Depth Range Max
  • 30