Species: Fundulus similis, Longnose Killifish

Fundulus similis (Baird & Girard, 1853)

Longnose Killifish

Body slender, elongate, compressed; head flattened above, with straight to slightly concave profile; snout long and sharp; cover of eye not continuous with head skin; front nostril not tubular; mouth small, oblique, opens at front, protrusible, distinctly below level of center of eye; top jaw twisted, lower jaw projecting; 8 pores under chin; jaws with outer row of pointed conical teeth, inner band of simple teeth; gill rakers short 6-10; no spines in fins; dorsal fin short based, its origin distinctly before anal fin origin, 11-13 rays; anal fin with 3rd fin ray branched, 9-13 rays; pectoral with narrow base, rounded, inserted low on side, 16-21 rays; pelvics inserted well behind pectoral base; tail fin bluntly rounded; small smooth scales, 33-37 midlateral rows; lateral line reduced to a series of pits along side of body.

Both sexes olive with 9-13 narrow dark bars on body and tail; male with a dark blotch on or behind top corner of operculum, sometimes yellow on lower head and/or tail fin; sometimes a black spot at lower rear corner of dorsal fin.

Reaches 15 cm.

Bays, estuaries and coastal marshes; brackish and marine.

Depth range: 0-1 m.

NE Florida to the western Gulf of Mexico.

Note: Sometimes regarded as a subspecies of S. majalis.