Darkedge Midshipman, Porichthys analis

Darkedge Midshipman, Porichthys analis. Fish provided by the commercial bait salesmen of Puerto Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, January 2008. Length: 10.0 cm (3.9 inches). Identification courtesy of H.J. Walker, Jr., Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California. The pictured fish has 34 anal rays, 35 dorsal rays and 12 pores.

The Darkedge Midshipman, Porichthys analis, is a member of the Toadfish or Batrachoididae Family, and is known in Mexico as sapo de luto. Gobally, there are fourteen species in the genus Porichthys, seven of which are found in Mexican waters, one in the Atlantic and six in the Pacific Ocean.

The Darkedge Midshipmen has an elongated body with an oval cross-section. They are brown in color with a golden sheen and have 5 to 7 dark saddles on their back. Their anal and caudal fins are white with dark margins and their dorsal fin is white with six or seven dark blotches along the outer margin. They have a large head with eyes on top, canine teeth, and a prominent non-venomous spine on their gill cover. Their anal fin has 33 to 39 rays; their dorsal fin has 2 stout dorsal spines; their second dorsal fin has 34 to 41 rays and a long base. They have 4 conspicuous rows of light organs along their lateral lines. The lower line on their flank has approximately 16 pores behind the end of the light-organ row (a key to identification). They have 11 to 13 lower gill rakers. They do not have scales and their skin is smooth to the touch.

The Darkedge Midshipman is a demersal species that is found over sandy and muddy bottoms at depths up to 213 m (700 feet). They reach a maximum of 30 cm (12 inches) in length. They consume crabs, echinoderms, fish, mollusks, and shrimp. The Darkedge Midshipman 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 Darkedge Midshipman is a resident of Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean and are found from Magdalena Bay southward along the southwest coast of Baja, throughout the Sea of Cortez, and along the coast of the mainland south to Guatemala.

The Darkedge Midshipman can be easily confused with the Miminic Midshipman, Porichthys mimeticus (29-32 anal rays; 10-12 gill rakers).

From a conservation perspective the Darkedge Midshipman is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are small in stature, seldom seen by humans, and is of limited interest to most.