Blackbelly Rosefish, Helicolenus dactylopterus
Blackbelly Rosefish, Helicolenus dactylopterus. Fish caught from coastal waters off Deerfield Beach, Florida, December 2020. Length: 20 cm (7.9 inches). Catch, photograph, and identification courtesy of Ben Cantrell, San Diego, California.
Blackbelly Rosefish, Helicolenus dactylopterus. Fish caught from coastal waters off Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, August 2018. Length: 30 cm (12 inches). Catch, photograph, and identification courtesy of Kenneth Tse, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Blackbelly Rosefish, Helicolenus dactylopterus. Fish caught from coastal waters off Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, August 20201. Length: 34 cm (13 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Luke Ovgard, Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Blackbelly Rosefish, Helicolenus dactylopterus.Fish caught from coastal waters off Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, August 2018. Length: 37 cm (15 inches). Catch, photograph, and identification courtesy of George Brinkman, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
The Blackbelly Rosefish, Helicolenus dactylopterus, is a member of the Rockfish and Scorpionfish or Scorpaenidae Family, and known in Mexico as the Bluemouth Rockfish and the Bluemouth Seaperch and in Mexico as chẻvre impériale. Globally, there are twelve species in the genus Heliocolenus, of which one species is found in Mexican waters, this species in the the Atlantic Ocean. Their bellies are not black, however the insides of the fish are, encounter when cleaning.
The Blackbelly Rosefish is robust in stature and are heavily spined. They are highly variable and cryptically colored with the back and sides being red transitioning to pink ventrally. Most have 5 to 6 bands below the dorsal spines that extend to the caudal peduncle, a Y-shaped dark bar that runs from the rear of the dorsal to the anal fin and a dark blotch on the posterior part of the spinous dorsal. They have large pointed heads with a steep profile and a short snout, large eyes and a mouth equipped with villiform teeth on both jaws. The inside of the mouth is dark. Their anal fin has 3 spines and 5 rays; their first dorsal fin has 11 to 13 spines; their second dorsal fin has 10 to 14 rays, and, their pectoral fin has 17 to 20 rays. They have 7 to 9 well developed gill rakers on the upper arch and 16 to 21 on the lower arch. They are covered with rough scales. They have a complete lateral line.
The Blackbelly Rosefish is a bathydemersal species that is found over soft bottom areas of the continental shelf and upper slope, at depths between 150 m (490 feet) and 600 m (1,970 feet). They reach a maximum of 50 cm (20 inches) in length and 1.6 kg (3 lbs 8 oz) in weight and are sexually dimorphic with males being longer length and heavier than females. They are sit-and-wait ambush predators feeding on benthic and pelagic organisms including cephalopods, crustaceans, echinoderms and fishes. Reproduction is viviparous, and larvae and juveniles are pelagic. Reproduction involves intraovarian gestation that is zygoparious, a form of oviparity that involves internal fertilization. The females have the ability to store sperm allowing them to spawn multiple batches of embryos. The larvae and juveniles are pelagic. They have life spans of forty-three years. The Blackbelly Rosefish 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 Blackbelly Rosefish is a resident of Mexican waters of the Atlantic Ocean but is only found along the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Caribbean; they are absent from the Gulf of Mexico.
The Blackbelly Rosefish can be confused with five other scorpionfish found in the same Mexican waters of the Atlantic, the Barbfish, Scorpaena brasiliensis, Coral Scorpionfish, Scorpaena albifimbria, the Goosehead Scorpionfish, Scorpaena bergii, the Mushroom Scorpionfish, Scorpaema inermis, and the Smoothcheek Scorpionfish, Scorpaena isthmensis, however all of these have cirri over their eyes which are not present in the Blackbellied Rosefish.
From a conservation perspective the Blackbelly Rosefish is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable widely distributed populations. They are not targeted commercially, but are caught as a by-catch with longlines, gill nets and bottom trawlers and retained by artisanal subsistence fishermen. They are sold commercially on a limited basis in local markets in some parts of its range, primarily in Europe. CAUTION! The Blackbelly Rosefish is covered with spines and the spines contain poisonous venom and should be handled accordingly.