Species: Symphurus civitatium, Offshore tonguefish

Symphurus civitatium Ginsburg, 1951

Offshore tonguefish

Body highly compressed, elongate, oval, tapers to pointed tail; body relatively deep; head shorter than wide; snout short and blunt; eyes small, close together, lower eye small; no cover over pupils; mouth small, arched (strongly on blind side), at front or a little under snout, reaches under rear of lower eye; eye-side lower jaw with fleshy crest; both jaws on eye side without teeth or with them only on front 1/3; preopercle edge covered with skin; dorsal 86-93 rays, origin over or slightly before top eye; anal 70-78 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 12 rays; scales rough, on both sides; rays of dorsal and anal usually without scales on blind-side (occasionally 1-3 small scales on ray bases); 66-83 lateral scales; no lateral line.