Species: Stellifer lanceolatus, Star Drum
eye large

mouth opens at front
gill rakers 32-36, 1st arch pale
Stellifer lanceolatus (Holbrook, 1855)
Star Drum
Body oblong, robust, moderately compressed; head low and broad, concave on nape, skull cavernous and spongy to touch; eyes relatively large (18-23% of head); mouth large, strongly oblique, opens at front, top lip usually above level of lower edge of eye; no barbels on chin, but 6 pores; preopercle with 4-6 strong bony spines at angle; gill rakers long and slender, 32-36, densely packed; top corner of gill opening notched; dorsal fin XI-XII + I, 21-25, deep notch between spiny and soft parts of fin; anal fin II, 8-9, 2nd spine ~2/3 of 1st ray; tail fin long, sharply to bluntly pointed; pored lateral line scales 53-56; scales rough on body, mostly smooth on chest, smooth on head; soft dorsal with 2-3 rows of small scales along its base; the lateral line extends to the center of the end of the tail fin.
Silvery grey to olive above, sometimes with a pinkish cast, pale below; fins pale to dusky, tip of 1st dorsal dark; inside gill chamber with black speckling; no dark band at front behind teeth; 1st gill arch pale.
Reaches 20 cm.
Hard sandy mud bottoms, including estuaries and brackish water
Depth range: 0-20 m.
Chesapeake Bay to the NW Caribbean.

High Resolution Map Download
- 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)
- Egg Type
-
- Data
- Pelagic
- Pelagic larva
- Global Endemism
-
- All species
- Greater Caribbean non-endemic
- West Atlantic Endemic
- Regional Endemism
-
- Continent
- Continent only
- GC non-endemic
- All species
- Residency
-
- Resident
- Climate Zone
-
- Subtropical (23-35N, Florida / Carolinas / Bermuda)
- Temperate (>35N)
- Tropical (10-23N, Nicaragua / Cuba)
- IUCN Red List
-
- Least concern
- Listed
- CITES
-
- Not listed
- Length Max
-
- 20
- Depth Range Min
-
- 0
- Depth Range Max
-
- 20