242 UNDERWATER GUIDE TO MARINE LIFE 



and-blue horizontal body striping are unique. The forehead is very steep, the 

 mouth small, and the body deep in members of this genus. The young are 

 yellow on the head and back, fading to gray below; the sides bear two dark 

 longitudinal stripes, the lower one extending from the eye to the tail fin. 



Hahits: This is a very common and pretty little fish. It is typical of shallow, 

 inshore waters and feeds at night on invertebrates. It schools densely in shoal 

 waters in the summer spawning season. Longley and Hildebrand (1941) report 

 that the young peck at the surfaces of large fishes such as barracudas, jacks, and 

 snappers, presumably to remove ectoparasites. 



Siviilar Species: The pompon or black margate, Anistotremis surinamensis, 

 is the largest of the grunts, reaching 3 feet and 20 pounds but averaging only 

 1 to 4 pounds. This is a silver-gray fish with dark gray vertical fins and most often 

 with a dark gray saddle on the bellv and sides just behind the pectoral fins. As 

 in the porkfish, the forehead is high. It swims in rather deep water around reefs 

 and channels and ranges from Florida to the West Indies. 



The sargo, Anistrotremiis davidsoni, is a dark-spotted, silvery fish with a 

 prominent black bar running from the base of the spiny dorsal to behind the 

 pectoral fin. The fins are yellow. It is a small fish of under a foot found in many 

 types of habitats from the shallow waters of Point Conception to Baja California. 



piGFiSH (sailor's choice) : Ortlwpristis chrysoptems— Color Plate 5 



Size: Averages 6 inches. Up to 15 inches. 



Weight: Up to 2 pounds. 



Distrihtition: Gulf of Mexico, Florida, north to the Carolinas and Virginia. 

 Straggles to Massachusetts. 



Identification: The anal fin is long for a grunt and reflects the soft dorsal in 

 size, shape, and its edging of black. The head is long and pointed. The color 

 pattern of orange-brown spots extending in oblique rows up and back from the 

 lateral line on a blue ground color, and spots of the same color in horizontal 

 rows below the lateral line, is distinctive. 



Hahits: This is a very common fish over sand, rock, or grassv bottoms of 

 shallow coastal waters. Its food consists of small invertebrates largely. It is an 

 excellent pan fish. 



Similar Species: There are several confusing members of this genus on the 

 West Coast from the Gulf of California southward and in the West Indies. All 

 have the long head and long anal fin. 



PORGIES: Familv Sparidae 



This group is closely related to grunts, but carries further the tendencv of 

 grunts to be deep at the shoulder and compressed of body. This gives most 

 of them a steep profile with the eve placed high o\cr and in back of the small 

 mouth. The anal fin tends to be longer than in grunts and reflects the shape of 

 the soft dorsal fin. There are over one hundred species of porgies found the world 

 over, chiefly in tropical seas. Most of these are of moderate to rather small size, 

 and most school inshore or offshore over hard or soft bottoms. Several species 

 are common about reefs, but manv are more tvpical of sandv or grassv shores; 

 several reach into temperate waters, where grunts are not commonlv found. 

 Larger ones are wary in the presence of the swimmer. The teeth are project- 



