Main identification features
- eye: spot below and behind
- dorsal fin has 16-17 rays
- body and d: 5 bars
- inside mouth - black and white
- top of opercle: no flap
Body robust, compressed; head short, with blunt snout that projects only a little beyond eye; eye large; nape profile convex; skin on head rough, especially on snout; front nostril with a long, club-shaped cirrus; top margin of operculum straight, without a conspicuous flap; top jaw reaches well behind eye, sexually dimorphic, with rounded with concave rear edge in female, and a long curved, pointed extension in male; 1 tooth at front of roof of mouth in male, none in female; spaces between rows of teeth with large papillae; lateral line on front half of body only, ending under second soft ray of dorsal fin, 52-62 pores; 33-36 rakers on first gill arch; dorsal fin X-XI,16-17, fin height increasing towards rear; anal III, 16; tail fin rounded; head and body before base of pectoral fin scaleless, scaly thereafter; 81-94 oblique scale rows.
Preserved fish: head and body yellowish brown; top of head with brown network; 4 thin dark bars with pale centers radiating forward (to nostrils) and down from eye; a black blotch at lower edge of eye and another at rear edge of eye; a diffuse dark bar across chin continues back along lower jaw; mouth tail and pectoral fins clear, other fins brown; 5 wide irregular dark brown bars on body extend onto dorsal fin; front of dorsal fin with a vague dusky blotch between spines IV-VII; top jaw with two inner dark stripes in male; inside mouth with a contrasting black and white color pattern that includes a black blotch on each side of opening to gut.
Size: 7.6 cm.
Habitat: burrows in sand and rubble.
Depth: 9-20m.
Isla del Caņo, Costa Rica, to western Panama.
Attributes
Abundance: Common.
Cites: Not listed.
Climate Zone: Equatorial (Costa Rica to Ecuador + Galapagos, Clipperton, Cocos, Malpelo).
Depth Range Max: 20 m.
Depth Range Min: 9 m.
Diet: mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs); mobile benthic gastropods/bivalves; bony fishes.
Eastern Pacific Range: Northern limit=9; Southern limit=8; Western limit=-84; Eastern limit=-82; Latitudinal range=1; Longitudinal range=2.
Egg Type: Brooded; Pelagic larva.
Feeding Group: Carnivore.
FishBase Habitat: Demersal.
Global Endemism: East Pacific endemic; Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) endemic; All species.
Habitat: Sand & gravel; Soft bottom (mud, sand,gravel, beach, estuary & mangrove); Soft bottom only.
Inshore Offshore: Inshore; Inshore Only.
IUCN Red List: Not evaluated / Listed.
Length Max: 7.6 cm.
Regional Endemism: TEP endemic; Continental TEP endemic; Panamic province endemic; Continent; Continent only; All species.
Residency: Resident.
Salinity: Marine; Marine Only.
Water Column Position: Bottom; Bottom only;
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