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Astroscopus guttatus

Northern Stargazer
NS GNR
Collection Details

Specimens

Photos

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Records

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes) Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri) Uranoscopidae (Stargazers) Astroscopus Astroscopus guttatus (Northern Stargazer)

Description

This species account was compiled from FishBase (Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2025. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version 04/2025.) and processed using AI-assisted text extraction. It may contain errors in spelling, punctuation, or formatting. When citing, please reference the original source rather than this page. Learn more about our species accounts.

Characters

Body shape: fusiform / normal.

Distribution

Western Atlantic: USA.

Habitat Associations

Marine. demersal.

Biology

Cleithral spine with venom gland (Ref. 57406). Found inshore, at depths to 36 m (Ref. 55313).
Max length: 59.0 cm TL; max weight: 9100 g.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2014-11-18. Resilience: Medium (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).

Commercial or Environmental Importance

Fisheries: subsistence fisheries; gamefish.

References

Robins, C.R. and G.C. Ray (1986) A field guide to Atlantic coast fishes of North America. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, U.S.A. 354 p.
IGFA (2001) Database of IGFA angling records until 2001. IGFA, Fort Lauderdale, USA.
Florida Museum of Natural History (2005) Biological profiles: northern stargazer. Retrieved on 26 August 2005, from www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/StarGazerNorth/StarGazeNorth.htm. Ichthyology at the Florida Museum of Natural History: Education-Biological Profiles. FLMNH, University of Florida.
Patzner, R.A. (2008) Reproductive strategies of fish. pp. 311-350. In Rocha, M.J., A. Arukwe and B.G. Kapoor (eds). Fish reproduction: cytology, biology and ecology. Science Publisher, Inc. Oxford. 631 p.
Watson, W. (1996) Uranoscopidae: Stargazers. p. 1144-1147. In H.G. Moser (ed.) The early stages of fishes in the California Current region. California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) Atlas No. 33. 1505p.

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