Species: Symphurus tessellatus, Tessellated Tonguefish

Symphurus tessellatus (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824)

Tessellated Tonguefish

Body highly compressed, elongate, oval, tapers to pointed tail, relatively elongate; head wide, its length < width; snout long and pointed; small close-set eyes on left side; lower eye larger and its center behind that of upper eye; no cover for pupils; snout rounded; mouth small, curved, strongly so on blind side, reaches to under rear edge of pupil of lower eye; eye side lower jaw without fleshy crest; preopercle edge covered with skin; dorsal fin 91-102 rays, its origin behind or over rear edge of top eye; anal fin 74-86 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 fin usually 12 rays; scales rough, on both sides of body; 81-96 lateral scales; eyes without scales on front half; rear rays of dorsal and anal with 4-8 rough scales on blind-side; no lateral line.

Top side brown, 5-9 well developed, sharply contrasting, relatively wide dark crossbars on head and body; outer side of operculum on eye side usually with a dark blotch; inside gill cover very dark on both sides; lining of gut cavity not pigmented; dorsal and anal fins become increasingly darker to rear of body (black in mature males), without dark spots or blotches; tail fin uniformly dark to black.

Size: 23 cm.

Habitat: soft silt and muddy sand; absent from upwelling areas.

Depth: 1-86 m.

Cuba to Uruguay.