Species: Stegastes adustus, Dusky Damselfish

Stegastes adustus (Troschel, 1865)

Dusky Damselfish

Body oval, robust, compressed; 1 pair of nostrils; margin of preopercle serrated; margin of bone under eye serrated, without notch between it and the bone before it; mouth small, protrusible, opens at front; teeth in single row, long and close-set incisors; 9-10 lower gill rakers; a single continuous dorsal fin, XII, 14-17; anal fin II, 13-15; dorsal and anal fins short and blunt, not reaching past base of tail fin; pectoral rays 20-22; no projecting short spines at upper and lower base of tail fin; caudal fin bluntly forked, lobes bluntly rounded; scales are moderately large and rough; body scaled, head largely scaled (snout scaled to nostrils), as are the basal parts of the median fins; lateral line incomplete, ends under end of dorsal fin base; lateral-line scales 18-21.

Adult: Body and fins uniform grey brown. Juvenile: head, body and fins grey-brown, except for a red-brown cap on nape, upper edge of body and spiny dorsal; spotted blue lines on head and upper front body; a large black, blue-ringed ocellus on lower part of dorsal fin and upper body at level of end of dorsal spines; a small black spot, bordered by blue on upper tail base.

Size: reaches 10.5 cm.

Occurs on shallow reefs, especially in high-energy outer edges.

Depth: about 0-30 m, usually < 5 m.

North Carolina to the S Caribbean.