Species: Symphurus civitatum, Offshore Tonguefish
inside gill cover dark
gut cavity pale

no pupil cover
Symphurus civitatum 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.
Top side brown, 6-14 narrow well defined crossbars; inner lining of opercle dark, color showing through operculum as dark blotch; blind side off-white, without dark dots; peritoneum unpigmented; dorsal, anal and tail fins without dark spots or blotches.
Size: 16 cm.
Habitat: silted sandy bottoms.
Depth: 1-73 m, usually 11-45 m.
North Carolina to the Gulf of México.

High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
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- Brackish
- Marine
- 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
- Estuary
- 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 gastropods/bivalves
- 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)
- Continental primarily
- GC endemic
- Island (s)
- All species
- Residency
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- Resident
- Climate Zone
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- 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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- 16
- Depth Range Min
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- 1
- Depth Range Max
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- 73