Star Drum, Stellifer lanceolatus
Star Drum, Stellifer lanceolatus. Fish caught from coastal waters off Charleston, South Carolina, June 2012. Length 11 cm (4.3 inches). Catch, photograph, and identification courtesy of Josh Leisen (joshadventures.com), Gaylord, Michigan.
Star Drum, Stellifer lanceolatus. Fish caught off the pier in Folly Beach, South Carolina, June 2015. Length: 15.0 cm (5.9 inches). Catch, photograph, and identification courtesy of Ryan Crutchfield, Tampa, Florida.
The Star Drum, Stellifer lanceolatus, is a member of the Croaker or Sciaenidae Family, and is also known as the American Stardrum and in Mexico as corvinilla lanza. Globally, there are twenty-four species in the genus Stellifer, of which seven are found in Mexican waters, two in the Atlantic and five in the Pacific Ocean.
The Star Drum has an oblong, robust, and moderately compressed body. They are silvery gray to olive dorsally and transition to pale ventrally. Their anal, pectoral, and pelvic fins are yellow. Their caudal and dorsal fins are dark with the first dorsal fin having a wide black margin. Their head is deep with a short snout and large eyes set high and forward. Their mouth is large and strongly oblique; it opens at the front with the top lip reaching the lower edge of the eyes. Their chin has 6 pores. They do not have a chin barbel. Their gill covers have 4 to 6 strong bony spines set at an angle. Their anal fin has 2 spines and 8 or 9 rays with the second spine being about two-thirds the length of the first ray; their caudal fin is long and blunt or sharply pointed; their first dorsal fin has 11 or 12 spines; and, their second dorsal fin has 1 spine and 21 to 25 rays. They have 32 to 36 densely packed gill rakers. They are covered with smooth to rough scales. Their lateral line extends into the caudal fin.
The Star Drum is a demersal species that is found over muddy and sandy bottoms in coastal areas and estuaries at depths up to 18 m (60 feet). They reach a maximum of 21.0 cm (8.3 inches) in length. Juveniles inhabit waters with lower salinities and migrate to oceanic waters as they mature. They feed on small crustaceans. The Star Drum is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.
The Star Drum is a resident of all waters of all Mexican waters of the Atlantic Ocean including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. They are abundant in all coastal lagoons and estuaries, specifically in and around the State of Campeche.
From a conservation perspective the Star Drum is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. There is a new concern due to their susceptibility to predation by the highly invasive Red Lionfish, Pterois volitans, which was recently introduced to the Caribbean. The Star Drum is not a targeted species and are of little interest to most. They are a frequent by-catch of the trawl fishery.