Species: Opistognathus smithvanizi, Eye-spot jawfish
body & D: 5 bars
D y C: lines white dots
Opistognathus smithvanizi Bussing & Lavenberg, 2003
Eye-spot jawfish
Body robust, compressed; head short, with blunt snout that projects only a little beyond eye; eye large; nape profile convex; skin on head rough, especially on snout; front nostril with a long, club-shaped cirrus; top margin of operculum straight, without a conspicuous flap; top jaw reaches well behind eye, sexually dimorphic, with rounded with concave rear edge in female, and a long curved, pointed extension in male; 1 tooth at front of roof of mouth in male, none in female; spaces between rows of teeth with large papillae; 33-36 gill rakers; dorsal fin X-XI, 16-17, fin height increasing towards rear; anal III, 16; tail fin rounded; head and body before base of pectoral fin scaleless, scaly thereafter, 81-94 oblique scale rows; lateral line on front half of body only, ending under second soft ray of dorsal fin, 52-62 pores.
Head and body tan; top of head with brown network or spotting; 4 thin dark bars with pale centers radiating forward (to nostrils) and down from eye; a black blotch at lower edge of eye and another at rear edge of eye; a diffuse dark bar across chin continues back along lower jaw; 5 wide irregular dark brown bars that contain small dark spots on body extend onto dorsal fin; front of dorsal fin with a vague dusky blotch between spines IV-VII, oblique lines of white spots; tail fin blackish, with rows of white spots and white bar at base; anal fin blackish, with white spots; pelvics black; top jaw with two inner dark stripes in male; inside mouth with a contrasting black and white color pattern that includes a black blotch on each side of opening to gut.
Size: 7.6 cm.
Habitat: burrows in sand and rubble.
Depth: 9-20m.
Isla del Caño, Costa Rica, to western Panama.
High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
-
- Marine
- Marine Only
- Inshore/Offshore
-
- Inshore
- Inshore Only
- Water Column Position
-
- Bottom only
- Bottom
- Habitat
-
- Sand & gravel
- Soft bottom only
- Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
- FishBase Habitat
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- Demersal
- Feeding Group
-
- No Data
- Carnivore
- Diet
-
- Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
- Bony fishes
- No Data
- Mobile benthic gastropods/bivalves
- Egg Type
-
- Brooded
- Pelagic larva
- No data
- Global Endemism
-
- East Pacific endemic
- All species
- Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) endemic
- Regional Endemism
-
- Continent only
- Continental TEP endemic
- Panamic province endemic
- TEP endemic
- All species
- Continent
- Residency
-
- Resident
- Climate Zone
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- Equatorial (Costa Rica to Ecuador + Galapagos, Clipperton, Cocos, Malpelo)
- IUCN Red List
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- Data deficient
- Listed
- CITES
-
- Not listed
- Length Max
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- 7.6
- Depth Range Min
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- 9
- Depth Range Max
-
- 20
