Species: Stegastes otophorus, Freshwater Gregory, Freshwater Damselfish

Stegastes otophorus (Poey, 1860)

Freshwater Gregory, Freshwater Damselfish

Body oblong, compressed; snout bluntly pointed; 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; 10-13 lower gill rakers; a single continuous dorsal fin, XII-XIII, 12-14; anal fin II, 12-14; dorsal and anal fins extend past tail fin base, with angular lobes; pectoral rays 17-19; no projecting short spines at upper and lower base of tail fin; lobes of tail fin bluntly rounded; scales are moderately large and rough; body scaled, head largely scaled (snout scaled to nostrils), basal parts of the median fins scaled; lateral line incomplete, ends under end of dorsal fin base; lateral-line scales 16-19.

Adult: dark grey-brown, rear edges of soft dorsal and anal fins and tail fin broadly orange yellow; pectoral fin yellowish. Juvenile: dark brown, dotted blue lines on head running back along top of body; an indistinct elongate black blotch at rear corner of dorsal fin; soft dorsal and anal, tail fin and rear of tail base yellow.

Size: reaches 13 cm.

River mouths and low salinity areas; enters freshwater.

Depth: 0-3 m.

Cuba to the S Caribbean.