Inshore lizardfish

Size

Diagnostic characters

 Small to medium-sized (to 45 cm) fish with elongate cylindrical body.  Head depressed; bony surfaces on top of head, snout triangular and sharply pointed, its length greater than diameter of eye; length of anal-fin base about equal to or usually longer than dorsal-fin base (rarely shorter); tip of pectoral fin falling short of or just reaching of pelvic-fin base; predorsal scales 20 to 30. Eye of moderate size; laterally directed. Adipose eyelid on anterior and posterior margins of eye. Mouth large, gape tending to be oblique. Upper jaw not protractile, its entire length bordered by premaxillary, its length more than half length of head and extending well past posterior margin of orbit in adult specimens; maxilla absent. Teeth of moderate size, depressible; no distinct canines; teeth on palatines, present in a single band and on tongue. Vomer absent. Gill openings large; gill membranes free from isthmus; 4 gill arches, extending far forward into mouth, well in advance of the angle of gape. Opercular flap with free edge formed by both opercle and subopercle. Gill rakers rudimentary or minute and spine-like. Branchiostegals 15 to 18. Head and body with cycloid scales. Fins with articulated soft rays except a few anterior secondary
caudal-fin rays, none greatly prolonged. Dorsal fin about midway on back, posterior to pelvic-fin insertion; the first 2 rays always unbranched, the others usually branched, the last ray always branched to its base. Adipose fin over base of anal fin. Anal fin posterior to end of dorsal fin; the first 2 rays always unbranched, the other rays branched or unbranched, the last ray always branched to its base. Caudal fin forked, with 19 principle rays, 17 branched rays. Pectoral fins not reaching to or extending beyond origin of pelvic fins; the first and last rays always unbranched, the other rays usually branched. Pelvic fins with 8 rays, the inner rays distinctly longer than outermost rays, fins close together and inserted abdominally, posterior to pectoral-fin origin and anterior to dorsal-fin origin; the first and last rays unbranched, all other rays branched; inner rays of pelvic fins distinctly longer than outermost rays. Anal-fin rays 8 to 11; length of anal-fin base shorter than dorsal-fin base (Fig. 2b); no scales on procurrent caudal-fin rays. Scales in lateral line 55 to 64 (rarely 54 or 65). Four to 6 rows of complete scales between lateral line and base of dorsal fin. Anus located just anterior to anal-fin origin. Colour: variable, but often brown, reddish, or silvery, with red, yellow, or blue markings; peritoneum either pale with 5 to 11 black spots on each side of midventral line, or black.

Habitat, biology, and fisheries

Inhabits shallow inshore waters in salt-water creeks, rivers, bays, and sounds and along open beaches on mud or sand bottoms; also ranges out over the continental shelf to depths of 180 m. A voracious predator that buries itself in the sand or mud to ambush prey; feeds mainly on fishes and small mobile invertebrates. Apparently a seasonal migrant in the northern part of its range. Of little importance to fisheries; taken incidentally in shrimp trawls and seldom marketed.  

Distribution

Citations

Carpenter, K.E. (ed)
The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 1: Introduction, molluscs, crustaceans, hagfishes, sharks, batoid fishes, and chimaeras.
FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5.
Rome, FAO. 2002. pp. 1-600.

Carpenter, K.E. (ed)
The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 2: Bony fishes part 1 (Acipenseridae to Grammatidae).
FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5.
Rome, FAO. 2002. pp. 601-1374.

Carpenter, K.E. (ed)
The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 3: Bony fishes part 2 (Opistognathidae to Molidae), sea turtles and marine mammals.
FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5.
Rome, FAO. 2002. pp. 1375-2127.