Species: Fundulus confluentus, Marsh Killifish

Fundulus confluentus Goode & Bean, 1879

Marsh Killifish

Body moderately slender, compressed; head flattened above, with straight upper profile; snout short, about = eye diameter; cover of eye not continuous with head skin; front nostril not tubular; mouth small, horizontal, opens at front, protrusible, top jaw twisted, lower jaw projecting; chin with 6-8 pores; jaws with outer row of pointed conical teeth, inner band of simple teeth; gill rakers short, 5; no spines in fins; dorsal fin short based, its origin behind midpoint of body, and over or slightly before anal fin origin, 10-12 rays; female with little or no pouch before anal fin; anal fin with 3rd fin ray branched, 9-10 rays; pectoral with narrow base, rounded, inserted low on side; pelvics inserted well behind pectoral base; tail fin bluntly rounded; small smooth scales, 36-40 midlateral rows; lateral line reduced to a series of pits along side of body.

Males are dark olive to green above, with 14-18 (12-24) long, wide dark bars with narrow silvery interspaces along side; belly white, yellow to yellow orange; dorsal fin without ocellus, but with a black blotch in rear lower corner. Females brown to olive above, with poorly defined, narrow dark bars on sides; back with dark spots; belly pale, whitish or yellowish; sometimes with an partial ocellus at lower rear corner of dorsal fin.

Reaches 8 cm.

Fresh to brackish water; grassy bays and backwaters.

Depth range: 0-1 m.

Chesapeake bay to the Gulf of Mexico.