Species: Symphurus parvus, Pygmy tonguefish

gut cavity pale
bases of D & A - holes

Symphurus parvus Ginsburg, 1951
Pygmy tonguefish
Body highly compressed, elongate, oval, tapers to pointed tail, relatively deep; head relatively long and wide, its length usually < than width; small close-set eyes on left side; lower eye larger; a well developed cover for pupils; snout rounded; mouth small, curved, strongly so on blind side, extends to below front edge of lower eye; lower jaw without fleshy crest on eye-side; eye side lower jaw with a row of teeth all along its length, top jaw with a row along front 1/2-3/4; preopercle edge covered with skin; dorsal fin origin ~ above upper eye, 75-86 rays; anal fin 60-70 rays; bases of dorsal and anal fins with holes on membranes; 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 usually 12 rays; scales rough, on both sides of body; 59-78 lateral scales; eyes with 4-8 rough scales at front; no lateral line.
Top side pale brown to yellowish, a conspicuous dark brown diamond-shaped to oblong blotch just before tail fin base; blind side whitish to yellowish, without dark dots; dorsal and anal without dark spots or blotches; lining of gut cavity pale; tail fin usually darker than dorsal and anal fins, sometimes with a dark spot.at its eye-side base, its blind-side membranes and rays with dark dots.
Size: 9.7 cm.
Habitat: mud bottoms.
Depth: 20-146 m.
North Carolina to Trinidad.

High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
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- Marine
- Marine Only
- Inshore/Offshore
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- Inshore Only
- Inshore
- Water Column Position
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- Bottom
- Habitat
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- Mud
- Soft bottom only
- Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
- FishBase Habitat
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- Demersal
- Feeding Group
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- Carnivore
- Data
- Diet
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- Mobile benthic gastropods/bivalves
- Data
- Mobile benthic worms
- Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
- Egg Type
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- Data
- Pelagic
- Pelagic larva
- Global Endemism
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- Greater Caribbean endemic
- All species.
- West Atlantic Endemic
- Regional Endemism
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- Continent only
- All species..
- GC endemic
- Extends North of GC
- Continent
- Residency
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- Resident
- Climate Zone
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- Subtropical (23-35N, Florida / Carolinas / Bermuda)
- Equatorial (0-10N, Costa Rica / Venezuela)
- 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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- 9.7
- Depth Range Min
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- 20
- Depth Range Max
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- 146