Scorpaena agassizii
Longfin Scorpionfish
Collection Details
Specimens
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Scorpaeniformes (Lionfish, Stonefish and others)
Scorpaenidae (Scorpionfishes)
Scorpaena
Scorpaena agassizii (Longfin Scorpionfish)
Description
This species account was compiled from
Composite (multiple sources) (McEachran, J.D. and J.D. Fechhelm. Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.)
and processed using AI-assisted text extraction.
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Characters
Occipital pit present; preorbital bone with two spinous points over maxilla; suborbital ridge with three or (rarely) four spines; well-developed nasal, preocular, supraocular, postocular, frontal, anterior and posterior parietal, upper and lower posttemporal, supracleithral, postorbital, and opercular spines present; cleithral spine small or absent; preoperculum with 3 spines; gill rakers on first arch number 4 to 6 on upper limb and 8 to 11 on lower limb; slit behind fourth arch absent; measurements (% SL): head length 43%–49%, snout length 8%–10%, orbit diameter 14%–20%, interorbital width 7%–11%, upper jaw length 20%–25%, body depth 33%–39%; pectoral fin with 18 to 21 rays; dorsal fin with 12 spines (rarely 13) and 9 rays; anal fin with 3 spines and 5 rays; scales cycloid; lateral line scales pored and number 23 to 25; vertebrae number 24; gas bladder absent.
Uniformly reddish brown, with body pigment concentrated into poorly defined spots behind head.
Distribution
Western Atlantic from North Carolina to Brazil, including the northern and southern Gulf of Mexico.
Habitat Associations
Soft to partially hard bottoms between 46 and 300 m depth.
Biology
Maximum known size is 155 mm TL.
Inhabits offshore waters. Found on soft bottom.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2012-08-21. Resilience: Medium (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).
References
Longley and Hildebrand 1941
Eschmeyer 1965b
Eschmeyer 1969b
Uyeno and Sato 1983b
Robins and Ray 1986
Cervigón 1991
Boschung 1992
Smith 1997
Poss and Eschmeyer 2002
Cervigón, F., R. Cipriani, W. Fischer, L. Garibaldi, M. Hendrickx, A.J. Lemus, R. Márquez, J.M. Poutiers, G. Robaina and B. Rodriguez (1992) Fichas FAO de identificación de especies para los fines de la pesca. Guía de campo de las especies comerciales marinas y de aquas salobres de la costa septentrional de Sur América. FAO, Rome. 513 p. Preparado con el financiamento de la Comisión de Comunidades Europeas y de NORAD.
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.
Eschmeyer, W.N. (1969) A systematic review of the scorpionfishes of the Atlantic Ocean (Pisces, Scorpaenidae). Occ. Pap. Calif. Acad. Sci. (79):130 p., 13 fig., 15 tab.
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.
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.
Comments On Scorpaena agassizii