Setarches guentheri
Deepwater Scorpionfish
Collection Details
Specimens
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Scorpaeniformes (Lionfish, Stonefish and others)
Setarchidae (Deep-sea Bristly Scorpionfishes)
Setarches
Setarches guentheri (Deepwater 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
Head bones cavernous and weakly ossified, lateral line consisting of a continuous trough covered by thin, membranous scales. Head is of moderate length, snout is relatively long, and eye is of moderate size. Teeth are small and arranged in narrow bands in jaws, palatine, and vomer. Preorbital bone has moderate-sized spines. Suborbital ridge lacks spinous points. Nasal, preocular, parietal, upper and lower posttemporal, pterotic, cleithral, and supracleithral spines are present. Preoperculum has 4 or 5 spines of similar size. Gill rakers number 2 to 5 on upper limb and 8 to 11 on lower limb. Measurements are expressed as percent of SL: snout length 10%–14%, interorbital width 7%–9%, body depth 28%–40%. Pectoral fin has 20 to 25 rays, with uppermost 1 or 2 unbranched, next 12 to 16 branched, and remainder unbranched. Dorsal fin has 12 spines and 9 or 10 rays. Anal fin has 3 spines and 4 to 6 rays. Scales are cycloid and small. Vertebrae number 24, and gas bladder is well developed.
Orangish red, with head and body covered with reddish black spots. Juveniles are usually reddish gray, with black specks.
Distribution
In the western Atlantic from New Jersey to northern Brazil, including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
Habitat Associations
Generally between 220 and 760 m depth, reported as shallow as 18 m off Alabama in the Gulf of Mexico.
Near the bottom, feeding on pelagic crustaceans.
Biology
Food consists of caridean shrimps and amphipods.
Maximum known size is 250 mm SL.
Found on soft bottom, at a bottom temperature range of about 5.5°-12.5°C and usually at a depth of about 400 m. They live on or near the bottom but feed in the water column (Ref. 47377). Specimens usually brought to the surface with the stomach everted. Stomach contents included parts of bathypelagic crustaceans of family Oplophoridae, Oplophorus sp., and an amphipod (Ref. 11015). Anterolateral glandular grooves with venom gland (Ref. 57406). Sold in small quantities in markets. Minimum depth range taken from Ref. 27000.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2014-07-15. Resilience: Low (Assuming tmax>10).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: minor commercial.
References
Eschmeyer and Collette 1966
Eschmeyer 1969b
Uyeno and Sato 1983b
Cervigón 1991
Boschung 1992
Poss and Eschmeyer 2002
Eschmeyer, W.N. and L.J. Dempster (1990) Scorpaenidae. p. 665-679. In J.C. Quero, J.C. Hureau, C. Karrer, A. Post and L. Saldanha (eds.) Check-list of the fishes of the eastern tropical Atlantic (CLOFETA). JNICT, Lisbon; SEI, Paris; and UNESCO, Paris. Vol. 2.
Eschmeyer, W.N. and J.E. Randall (1975) The scorpaenid fishes of the Hawaiian Islands, including new species and new records (Pisces: Scorpaenidae). Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 40(11):265-334.
Eschmeyer, W.N. and B.B. Collette (1966) The scorpionfish subfamily Setarchinae, including the genus Ectreposebastes. Bull. Mar. Sci. 16(2):349-375.
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.
Figueiredo, J.L., A.P.D. Santos, N. Yamaguti, R.A. Bernardes and C.L. Del Bianco Rossi-Wongtschowski (2002) Peixes da zona econômica exclusiva da Região Sudeste-Sul do Brasil: Levantamento com Rede de Meia-Água. São-Paulo: Editora da Universidade de São Paulo; Imprensa Oficial do Estado, 242 p.
Mundy, B.C. (2005) Checklist of the fishes of the Hawaiian Archipelago. Bishop Mus. Bull. Zool. (6):1-704.
De La Hoz-M, J., J. Motta and J. Paramo (2016) Length-weight relationships for 36 deep sea fish in the Colombian Caribbean Sea. J. Appl. Ichthyol. 32:1356-1359. DOI: 10.1111/jai.13217
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