Serranus notospilus
Saddle Bass
Collection Details
Specimens
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri)
Serranidae (Sea Basses and Groupers)
Serranus
Serranus notospilus (Saddle Bass)
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
Spindle shaped in profile and moderately compressed; no notch between spinous and rayed sections of dorsal fin; deciduous scales; black blotch on rayed section of dorsal fin; nares close set with long flap extending from posterior margin of anterior naris; maxilla extends to about middle of eye; jaw teeth villiform in bands narrowing posteriorly with outer row enlarged, conical, and recurved; granular vomerine and palatine teeth in chevron-shaped patch and narrow band, respectively; premaxilla obtusely angled with serrae along posterior and ventral margins; middle opercular spine relatively large and straight; gill rakers on first arch number 17 to 23; head length 36%–40% SL, snout length 7%–11% SL, eye diameter 11%–15% SL, body depth 26%–33% SL; pectoral fin large and fanlike with 14 to 17 (usually 15 or 16) rays; dorsal fin has 10 spines and 12 or 13 (usually 12) rays; anal fin has 7 or 8 rays; caudal fin emarginate; scales weakly ctenoid on nape, occiput, interorbital region, operculum, and cheek; pored lateral line scales number 45 to 48; rows of cheek scales number five to seven; scales encircling caudal peduncle number 25 to 29
Brown to tan dorsally and tan ventrally, with faint dark bands below dorsal fin and on caudal peduncle; head silvery with broad dark brown band running from eye to interoperculum; rayed section of dorsal fin has black blotch above middle band; specimens from the southern section of the range (Caribbean Sea) have broad white bar extending from lateral line to belly, just anterior to anus
Distribution
Western Atlantic from the Florida Keys to Suriname, including the Florida Keys and the Gulf of Mexico
Occurs throughout the Gulf of Mexico
Habitat Associations
Between 44 and 229 m depth
Biology
Maximum known size is about 100 mm SL
Synchronously hermaphroditic.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2012-08-23. Resilience: High (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).
References
Longley 1935
Longley and Hildebrand 1941 (as Prionodes notospilus)
Ginsburg 1952a (as Paracentropristis notospilus)
Robins and Stark 1961
Bullock and Smith 1991
Boschung 1992
Smith 1997
Heemstra 2002c
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.
Anderson, W., K.E. Carpenter, G. Gilmore, G. Milagrosa Bustamante, A. Polanco Fernandez and R. Robertson (2015) Serranus notospilus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015:e.T16759552A16781908. DOI: 10.2305/IUCN.UC.2015-2.RLTS.T16759552A16
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