Skip to content
A Virtual Museum on the State's Fish Biodiversity

Paralabrax maculatofasciatus

Spotted Sand Bass
Collection Details

Specimens

Photos

There are no photos available for this taxon yet.

Records

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes) Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri) Serranidae (Sea Basses and Groupers) Paralabrax Paralabrax maculatofasciatus (Spotted Sand Bass)

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

Eastern Central Pacific: Monterey in California, USA to Mexico, including the Gulf of California. Also reported in Nicaragua (Ref. 13613).

Habitat Associations

Marine. reef-associated. depth range 1-61 m.

Biology

Usually found on sand or mud bottom near rocks and eelgrass, from the coast to a depth of 60 m. A secretive species, it feeds on small fishes and benthic crustaceans during the day (Ref. 9342). Capable of tolerating ample fluctuations of temperature (from 7.5 to 32°C) and survive extreme cold intervals (Ref. 9342). Pelagic spawners (Ref. 56049). Important game fish caught in bays and harbors (Ref. 9342). Minimum depth range based on occurrence (Ref. 79604).
Max length: 60.0 cm TL; max weight: 900 g; max age: 20 years.
Reproductive mode: protogyny; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none. Pelagic spawner (Ref. 56049). Protogyny (Ref. 32126) as proposed has been corrected by a more detailed study on several species which confirmed this species and all of the members of the genus to be gonochoristic (Ref. 103751).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2008-05-01. Resilience: Medium (tm=1.5; tmax=20; K=0.296).

Commercial or Environmental Importance

Fisheries: of no interest; gamefish.

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.
Fitch, J.E. and R.J. Lavenberg (1975) Tidepool and nearshore fishes of California. California Natural History Guides:38. University of California Press, Berkelley and Los Angeles, California. 156 p.
Anonymous (1994) Atlas pesquero de México. Instituto Nacional de la Pesca. 234 p.
Sadovy de Mitcheson, Y. and M. Liu (2008) Functional hermaphroditism in teleosts. Fish Fish. 9(1):1-43. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-2979.2007.00266.x

Comments On Paralabrax maculatofasciatus

No comments have been posted yet.