Daily Fish Facts of the Day - Porkfish

Oh, hey, didn't see you there. This is a porkfish (Anisotremus virginicus), and is a species of Grunt native to the western Atlantic, from Florida to Brazil, ahs throughout the Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico.

Porkfish have 2 distinct black vertical stripes on their face, and lateral yellow/silver stripes on their side. They also have bright yellow fins

Close up of the pectoral fins. The lines in the fins are called rays... Making this a ray-finned fish (actinopterygii), as opposed to a flesh finned fish (sarcopterygii) such as coelacanth and lungfish.

Porkfish are normally nocturnal, preferring to hunt for small inverts at night.

They are not really popular for eating, but are often caught as a game fish.

It tends to stay shallow, never really going deeper than 20 meters (65ish feet).

Their max size is about 1.5 ft long, but are most commonly found less than a foot long.

Porkfish often contain the ciguerta toxin, which is a foodborne planktonic parasite (dinoflagellates) and can bioaccumulate into larger fishes. (One of the big reasons it's on the don't eat list)

Last fact - Porkfish, like all grunts, produce grunt-like sounds via their pharyngeal teeth and swim bladder. These sounds seem to be particularly associated with situations of stress