The spottail pinfish (Diplodus holbrookii) is an ocean-going species of fish in the familySparidae. It is also known as the spottail seabream or spottail pinkish porgy. Along with other members of their family, spottail pinfish are occasionally eaten and considered by some to be a panfish.[2]
Taxonomy
T. H. Bean, who described the Spottail pinfish.John Holbrook, for whom the Spottail pinfish was named .
Spottail pinfish have a deep, ovoid, laterally compressed body with a small, deep head and a pointed snout. They have a small mouth which just reaches under the front of the eye. There are six large, flattened incisor-like teeth in the front of each jaw with three rows of molar-like teeth on the sides of the jaws. The dorsal fin is supported by 12 spines, with the fourth spine having a length equivalent to 40% of the length of the head, and between 13 and 16 soft rays. The anal fin contains three spines and between 13 and 15 soft rays. The pectoral fins are much longer than the pelvic fins. The cheeks are scaled but the snout is naked. The upper body is steely blue in color, the flanks are silvery. There is a large black blotch on the caudal peduncle. The membrane of the operculum is dark.[8] Juveniles have dark bars on the body.[citation needed] This species has a maximum published total length of 46 cm (18 in), although 25 cm (9.8 in) is more typical.[9]
Distribution and habitat
Spottail pinfish are exclusive to the western Atlantic Ocean. They can be found from the Chesapeake Bay to southern Florida. Spottail pinfish are also known from the northern Gulf of Mexico, but are not known from the West Indies.[9] There are only questionable reports from Cuba.[10]
Spottail pinfish are common to shallow waters (only as deep as 28 metres or 92 feet) near coasts, such as bays and harbors, though only rarely in brackish areas. They prefer flat, vegetated bottoms such as beds of sea grass,[9] where they feed on a mixture of plants (such as Thalassia)[11] and small invertebrates.[12]
This species is thought to spawn offshore, in rather shallow seas, during the winter or early spring. Breeding likely takes place just annually lasting for only around two months. Fish in breeding condition have been measured from 12.9 cm (5.1 in) and the gonads develop in the months leading up to spawning.[1]
Fisheries
Spottail pinfish is caught by commercial fisheries in all areas in which it occurs. The fish landed are usually bycatch and are commonly caught on hook and line and by seine nets, gill nets and shallow water trawling. This species is a bycatch in shrimp trawl fisheries and is a very common bycatch in North Carolina’s black sea bass commercial fish trap fishery.[1]
^M. Summerer; R. Hanel; C. Sturmbauer (2001). "Mitochondrial phylogeny and biogeographic affinities of sea breams of the genus Diplodus (Sparidae)". Journal of Fish Biology. 59 (6): 1638–1652. Bibcode:2001JFBio..59.1638S. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8649.2001.tb00227.x.
^Claro, R. and L.R. Parenti 2001 The marine ichthyofauna of Cuba. p. 21–57. In: Claro, R., K.C. Lindeman and L.R. Parenti (eds) Ecology of the marine fishes of Cuba. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London. 253p.
^ abLongley, William H. ed. Samuel F. Hilderbrand. Systemic Catalogue of the Fishes of Tortugas, Florida with Observations on Color, Habits, and Local Distribution. Washington D. C. Carnegie Institution of Washington. 1941. pg. 133
^Pike, L.A. and D.G. Lindquist 1994 Feeding ecology of spottail pinfish (Diplodus holbrooki) from an artificial and natural reef in Onslow Bay, North Carolina. Bull. Mar. Sci. 55(2-3):363–374.
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