Species: Lonchurus elegans, Blackfin croaker
gill rakers: 7-9 short, stour
Lonchurus 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.
High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
-
- Marine
- Brackish
- Inshore/Offshore
-
- Inshore Only
- Inshore
- Water Column Position
-
- Bottom
- Habitat
-
- Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
- Estuary
- Sand & gravel
- Mud
- Soft bottom only
- FishBase Habitat
-
- Demersal
- Feeding Group
-
- Carnivore
- Data
- Diet
-
- Mobile benthic worms
- Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
- Mobile benthic gastropods/bivalves
- Data
- Egg Type
-
- Data
- Pelagic
- Pelagic larva
- Global Endemism
-
- Greater Caribbean non-endemic
- All species.
- West Atlantic Endemic
- Regional Endemism
-
- Also in Brazil
- Continent
- GC non-endemic
- All species..
- Continent only
- Extends South of GC
- Residency
-
- Resident
- Climate Zone
-
- Equatorial (0-10N, Costa Rica / Venezuela)
- IUCN Red List
-
- Listed
- Data deficient
- CITES
-
- Not listed
- Length Max
-
- 35
- Depth Range Min
-
- 1
- Depth Range Max
-
- 30
