Species: Floridichthys polyommus, Ocellated Killifish

Floridichthys polyommus Hubbs, 1936

Ocellated Killifish

Body moderately deep and chubby; head flattened, upper profile convex; snout short and blunt; front nostril not tubular; covering of eye not continuous with skin of head; mouth wide, oblique, at front, protrusible; 6 pores under chin; teeth 3-pointed, in single series; 12 short, stout gill rakers; dorsal fin short based, 11-12 rays, at mid-body, its origin before anal fin origin; anal fin with 9-10 branched rays; dorsal and anal fins longer in male; pectoral fin short, 18-21 rays, low on side; pelvics small, 6-7 rays, on belly well behind pectoral base; tail fin bluntly rounded; body with large, smooth scales, 23-25 lateral scales; head scaly; one wide scale across entire snout, with naked strip before that; scales before pelvics large and regularly positioned, 17 or fewer; no enlarged scale just behind upper corner of operculum; lateral line reduced to a series of pits along side of body.

Color very variable: top of head and body dark grey; a series of oblong metallic brown blotches on upper body between operculum and the base of the tail fin; back with a series of 4-8 irregular narrow dark bars that run down onto side, ~half of them reaching bottom of body, these alternating with short bars, spaces between bars silver to yellowish; cheek and opercle with horizontal to oblique gold bars; breeding male with and lower sides and tail base with silver spots outlined in blue on spaces between dark bars; lower head and belly golden; pectorals with gold tint; pelvic and anal fins orange, dark grey on inner parts; dorsal fin sometimes yellow, with dark grey rays, outer margin orange; tail fin with gold fringe, with ~ 5 vertical rows of grey to gold spots.

Reaches 11.6 cm.

Brackish water, occasionally in freshwater.

Depth range: 0-1 m.

The SW Gulf of Mexico to Belize.