Species: Paralonchurus elegans, Blackfin Croaker
gill rakers: 7-9 short, stour
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.
High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
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- Brackish
- Marine
- Inshore/Offshore
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- Inshore
- Inshore Only
- Water Column Position
-
- Bottom
- Habitat
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- Sand & gravel
- Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
- Soft bottom only
- Estuary
- Mud
- FishBase Habitat
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- Demersal
- Feeding Group
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- 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
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- Also in Brazil
- Continent
- Continent only
- Extends South of GC
- GC non-endemic
- All species
- Residency
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- Resident
- Climate Zone
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- Equatorial (0-10N, Costa Rica / Venezuela)
- IUCN Red List
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- Data deficient
- Listed
- CITES
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- Not listed
- Length Max
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- 35
- Depth Range Min
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- 1
- Depth Range Max
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- 30
