Species: Symphurus tessellatus, Tessellated Tonguefish
gut cavity pale

no pupil cover
blind side rear D & A rays - 4-8 rough scales
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.

High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
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- Marine
- Brackish
- 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
- Mud
- 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 worms
- Egg Type
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- Data
- Pelagic
- Pelagic larva
- Global Endemism
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- All species
- Greater Caribbean non-endemic
- West Atlantic Endemic
- Regional Endemism
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- Also in Brazil
- Continent
- Continent + Island (s)
- Continental primarily
- Extends South of GC
- GC non-endemic
- Island (s)
- All species
- Residency
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- Resident
- Climate Zone
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- 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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- 23
- Depth Range Min
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- 1
- Depth Range Max
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- 86