Species: Symphurus diomedeanus, Spottedfin Tonguefish

Symphurus diomedeanus (Goode & Bean, 1885)

Spottedfin Tonguefish

Body highly compressed, elongate, oval, tapers to pointed tail; body fairly deep; head long and narrow, length shorter than width; small close-set eyes on left side; lower eye relatively large; cover for pupils present; snout rounded; mouth small, curved, strongly so on blind side; eye-side lower jaw without fleshy crest; eye side top jaw usually without teeth; preopercle edge covered with skin;dorsal fin origin ~ above upper eye, 86-96 rays; anal 69-80 rays; only left pelvic fin present, 4 rays, on body midline, joined to anal fin by delicate membrane; pectoral fins absent, represented by a fine membrane; dorsal and anal fins confluent with the pointed caudal fin; tail fin usually 10 rays; scales rough, on both sides of body; 79-96 lateral scales; usually no scales on blind side of dorsal and anal fins, occasionally 1-2 scales on bases of rays; no lateral line.

Top side brown, mottled with irregular large dark blotches (fish collected from pale substrata are uniformly light brown to yellowish); rear of dorsal and anal fins with 1-5 conspicuous round dark brown to black spots midway between fin edge and base; tail dark brown to black, occasionally with a single round black spot near outer edge; blind side creamy to yellowish, without dark dots; inside operculum and lining of gut cavity without pigment.

Size: 22 cm.

Habitat: sand and shell bottoms; enters brackish water.

Depth: 6-316 m.

North Carolina to Uruguay.