Species: Stellifer stellifer, Southern stardrum


Stellifer stellifer (Bloch, 1790)
Southern stardrum
Body oblong, moderately compressed; head deep and broad, skull cavernous, translucent, spongy to touch; mouth large, oblique, opens at front; chin with 6 pores, no barbels; snout with 8 pores; preopercle with 3 strong bony spines at angle sometimes with smaller spines above those; gill rakers long and slender, 33-39; top corner of gill opening notched; deep notch between spiny and soft parts of dorsal fin, X-XI + I-III, 17-20; anal fin with short base II, 8-9, 2nd spine long (nearly length of 1st ray) and strong; tail fin long and pointed; scales rough on body, smooth on head and breast; 48-51 pored scales on lateral line; soft dorsal with 2-3 rows of scales along its base, membranes thickly covered with scales along 2/3 of fin height; the lateral line extends to the center of the end of the tail fin.
Silvery grey, darker above; upper 1/3 of 1st dorsal dusky with a dark tip; pectorals, pelvics and anal yellowish; inside gill cover and mouth pale.
Reaches 20 cm.
On sandy mud bottoms.
Depth range: 2-35 m.
Honduras to SE Brazil.

High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
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- Brackish
- Marine
- Inshore/Offshore
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- Inshore Only
- Inshore
- Water Column Position
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- Bottom
- Habitat
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- Sand & gravel
- Mud
- Soft bottom only
- Estuary
- Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
- FishBase Habitat
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- Demersal
- Feeding Group
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- Planktivore
- Data
- Carnivore
- Diet
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- Data
- Bony fishes
- Zooplankton
- Egg Type
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- Data
- Pelagic
- Pelagic larva
- Global Endemism
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- West Atlantic Endemic
- Greater Caribbean non-endemic
- All species.
- Regional Endemism
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- GC non-endemic
- All species..
- Continent only
- Also in Brazil
- Extends South of GC
- Continent
- 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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- Listed
- Data deficient
- CITES
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- Not listed
- Length Max
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- 20
- Depth Range Min
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- 2
- Depth Range Max
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- 35