Eucinostomus argenteus
Spotfin Mojarra
NS
G5
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri)
Gerreidae (Mojarras)
Eucinostomus
Eucinostomus argenteus (Spotfin Mojarra)
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. Tip of dorsal fin dusky. Premaxillary groove continuous but narrow, bordered by scales anteriorly (Ref. 26938).
Distribution
Eastern Pacific: Anaheim Bay in southern California, USA southward to Peru, including the Galapagos Islands. Western Atlantic: New Jersey, USA and Bermuda through the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean to southeastern Brazil (Ref. 7251).
Habitat Associations
Freshwater, brackish, marine. reef-associated. depth range 0-12 m. Found in: estuaries, mangroves, coral reefs.
Biology
Found over soft bottoms of bays and shallow inshore areas, often along sand beaches (Ref. 2850). Enters freshwater (Ref. 7251). Juveniles are encountered in lagoons of mangroves. Omnivorous (Ref. 9303). Marketed fresh but not highly esteemed; processed into fish meal and used as live bait in the snapper fishery (Ref. 3722).
Max length: 21.2 cm TL; common length: 15.0 cm TL; max weight: 120 g.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2010-03-01. Resilience: High (K=0.3-0.5;).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: minor commercial.
References
Eschmeyer, W.N., E.S. Herald and H. Hammann (1983) A field guide to Pacific coast fishes of North America. Boston (MA, USA): Houghton Mifflin Company. xii+336 p.
Humann, P. and N. DeLoach (1993) Reef fish identification. Galápagos. New World Publications, Inc., Florida. 267 p.
Vega-Cendejas, M.E., M. Hernandez and F. Arreguin-Sanchez (1994) Trophic interrelations in a beach seine fishery from the northwestern coast of the Yucatan peninsula. J. Fish Biol. 44(4):647-659.
Randall, J.E. (1996) Caribbean reef fishes. Third Edition - revised and enlarged. T.F.H. Publications, Inc. Ltd., Hong Kong. 3nd ed. 368 p.
Uyeno, T., K. Matsuura and E. Fujii (eds.) (1983) Fishes trawled off Suriname and French Guiana. Japan Marine Fishery Resource Research Center, Tokyo, Japan. 519 p.
Smith, C.L. (1997) National Audubon Society field guide to tropical marine fishes of the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, the Bahamas, and Bermuda. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. 720 p.
Austin, H. and S. Austin (1971) The feeding habits of some juvenile marine fishes from the mangroves in western Puerto Rico. Caribb. J. Sci. 11(3-4):171-178.
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.
Dias, J.F., W.S. Fernandez and T.C.S. Schmidt (2014) Length-weight relationship of 73 fish species caught in the southeastern inner continental shelf region of Brazil. Lat. Am. J. Aquat. Res. 42(1):127-136. DOI: 10.3856/vol42-issue1-fulltext-10
Comments On Eucinostomus argenteus