Species: Symphurus caribbeanus, Caribbean Tonguefish
gut cavity pale

no pupil cover
Symphurus caribbeanus Munroe, 1991
Caribbean Tonguefish
Body highly compressed, elongate, oval, tapers to pointed tail; head wide and short; snout pointed; eyes small, close together, lower eye smaller and slightly behind upper eye; no cover over pupils; mouth small, arched (strongly on blind side), at front or a little under snout; eye-side lower jaw without fleshy crest; both jaws on eye side without teeth or with them only on front 1/3; preopercle edge covered with skin; dorsal 89-96 rays, origin over or slightly before top eye; anal 74-80 rays; pectoral fins absent, represented by a fine membrane; only left pelvic fin present, 4 rays, on body midline, joined to anal fin by delicate membrane; dorsal and anal fins confluent with the pointed caudal fin; tail fin 12 rays; scales rough, on both sides; dorsal and anal fins without scales on blind side; 78-89 lateral scales; no lateral line.
Top side dark brown to yellowish; ~9-15 narrow, irregularly complete well defined dark bars on body and head; inner lining of operculum heavily pigmented on eye side; entire dorsal and anal pale with alternating dark and clear bars; tail fin clear or with alternating dark and clear bars along its length; lining of gut cavity pale.
Size: 14 cm.
Habitat: sand and mud bottoms.
Depth: 1-29 m.
The Caribbean.

High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
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- Marine
- Marine Only
- Inshore/Offshore
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- Inshore
- Inshore Only
- Water Column Position
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- Bottom
- Habitat
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- Sand & gravel
- Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
- Soft bottom only
- Mud
- FishBase Habitat
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- Demersal
- Feeding Group
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- Carnivore
- Data
- Diet
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- Data
- Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
- Mobile benthic worms
- Egg Type
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- Data
- Pelagic
- Pelagic larva
- Global Endemism
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- All species
- Greater Caribbean endemic
- West Atlantic Endemic
- Regional Endemism
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- Continent
- Continent + Island (s)
- GC endemic
- Island (s)
- All species
- Residency
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- Resident
- Climate Zone
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- Equatorial (0-10N, Costa Rica / Venezuela)
- Subtropical (23-35N, Florida / Carolinas / Bermuda)
- Tropical (10-23N, Nicaragua / Cuba)
- IUCN Red List
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- Least concern
- Listed
- CITES
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- Not listed
- Length Max
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- 14
- Depth Range Min
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- 1
- Depth Range Max
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- 29