Species: Symphurus piger, Deepwater Tonguefish

Symphurus piger (Goode & Bean, 1886)

Deepwater Tonguefish

Body highly compressed, elongate, oval, tapers to pointed tail, relatively deep, head much shorter than wide, snout short and rounded; small close-set eyes on left side; lower eye relatively small; no 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; teeth along entire length of lower eyeside jaw, front ¾ of upper jaw; preopercle edge covered with skin; dorsal fin 80-90 rays, its origin behind or over rear edge of top eye; anal fin 68-74 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 usually 12 rays; scales rough, on both sides of body; 62-75 lateral scales; eyes with 4-5 rows of small rough scales on front half; rays of dorsal and anal without scales on blind-side; no lateral line.

Top side dark brown, with 5-6 (3-10) darker brown sharply contrasting narrow crossbars on head and body; tail fin all dark; inside operculum pale; lining of gut cavity black; blind side without dark dots.

Size: 14 cm.

Habitat: soft mud bottoms.

Depth: 92-750 m.

South Carolina to French Guiana.