Species: Symphurus nebulosus, Nebulous tonguefish

Symphurus nebulosus (Goode & Bean, 1883)

Nebulous tonguefish

Narrower than body depth; snout moderately short, rounded; small close-set eyes on left side; lower eye small, about same position as upper eye; no cover for pupils; snout rounded; mouth small, curved, strongly so on blind side, reaches under front edge of pupil of lower eye; eye side lower jaw without fleshy crest; teeth well developed on both jaws, a complete row on top and bottom eye-side jaws; preopercle edge covered with skin; dorsal fin 105-113 rays, its origin ~over center of top eye; anal fin 91-98 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 14, rarely 13 rays; scales rough, on both sides of body; 120-135 lateral scales; eyes without scales on front half; blind side rays of dorsal and anal without scales; no lateral line.

Top side uniform pale to dark brown, with ~40-60 black lines along scale rows; peritoneum black, visible through body wall; blind side white, small fish with row of black dots along dorsal and anal fin bases; dorsal and anal fins uniform brown; tail fin brown, with clear tip.

Size: 9 cm.

Habitat: mud bottoms

Depth: 239-810 m.

New York to SE Florida.