Calico Sculpin, Clinocottus embryum

Calico Sculpin, Clinocottus embryum. Fish caught from coastal waters off Crescent City, California, February 2024. Length: 6.9 cm (2.7 inches). Catch, photograph and Identification courtesy of Vince Golder, Santa Cruz, California.

The Calico Sculpin, Clinocottus embryum, is a member of the Marine Sculpin or Psychrolutidae Family, that is known in Mexico as charrasco angaripola. Globally, there are six species in the Genus Clinocottus of which three are found in Mexican waters and all three are found in the Pacific Ocean.

The Calico Sculpin has an elongated tapering body with a mid-sized head with large fan-like pectoral fins. They are speckled and mottled and predominately brown in color with four dark saddles, three under the second dorsal fin and one at the top of the caudal peduncle. Their anal and dorsal fins have dark brown wide spots, that that afford a barred appearance and are similar to the body in color; their caudal fin is dark. They have cirri on the head and lateral line. They have a pair of mid-sized eyes on top of their head and a mid-sized mouth that opens in the front and ends before the eyes. Their anal fin has 9 to 12 rays; their caudal fin is rounded; their first dorsal fin has 8 to 10 spines and their second dorsal fin has 14 to 17 rays; and their pelvic fins are small. They have a blunt spine on the preoperculum.

The Calico Sculpin is a demersal species that is found within rocky areas, coralline algae and shell fragments in the intertidal zone at depths up to 2 m (5 feet). They reach a maximum of 7.0 cm (2.8 inches) in length. They have the ability to breathe air. They are ambush predators that consume amphipods, barnacle tentacles, gammarid, insect larvae, and isopods. Reproduction is oviparous with internal fertilization and spawning occurring in shallow coastal waters.

The Calico Sculpin is a resident of Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean but has a limited distribution being found from Punta Banda, Baja California, northward along the central northwest coast of the Baja Peninsula.

From a conservation perspective the Calico Sculpin has not been formally evaluated. They are small in stature and of interest to most. They are known to host the digenean endoparasites, Derogenes varicus and Lecithaster salmonia.