Bermuda sea chub
Kyphosus sectatrix
(Linnaeus, 1766)
Description:
Body uniformly gray to silver, more or less rounded in outline, but with thin yellow to bronze stripes on the body and a stripe, bordered in white, under eye from the mouth to the gill cover. Upper part of the opercular membrane blackish. The young may display pale spots, nearly as large as the eye, on the head, body and fins.
Size up to 76 cm.
Habitat:
Inhabits shallow waters, over seagrass beds, sand or rocky bottoms and around coral reefs, down to 30 m (K. sectatrix). Young chub are found among floating sargassum weeds. Feeds on plants, mainly on benthic algae, as well as small crabs and mollusks.
Distribution:
Common to occasional Florida, Bahamas and Caribbean.
Remarks:
A second species, the Yellow sea chub (Kyphosus incisor) is difficult to be distinguished from the Bermuda sea chub. Positive identification requires ray counts:
K. secratrix: Dorsal spines (total): 11-11; Dorsal soft rays (total): 11-12; Anal spines: 3-3; Anal soft rays: 11-11.
K. incisor: Dorsal spines (total): 11-11; Dorsal soft rays (total): 13-15; Anal spines: 3-3; Anal soft rays: 12-13.