Amigo Stardrum, Stellifer wintersteenorum

Amigo Stardrum, Stellifer wintersteenorum. Fish caught within Magdalena Bay, Baja California Sur, May 2017. Length: 21.3 cm (8.4 inches).

Amigo Stardrum, Stellifer wintersteenorum. Fish caught from coastal waters off Mazatlán, Sinaloa, October 2019. Length: 21 cm (8.3 inches). Catch and photograph courtesy of George Brinkman, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Identification courtesy of H.J. Walker, Jr., Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California.

The Amigo Stardrum, Stellifer wintersteenorum, is a member of the Croaker or Sciaenidae Family, and is known in Mexico as corvinilla amigable. This fish was only introduced to science in 2001. 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 Amigo Stardrum has an oblong and compressed body. They are silvery with brown tinges dorsally and around their gill covers. They have a dark pectoral axis and their fins are uniformly dusky. Their head is low and broad with a wide flat space between their small eyes. They have a long bluntly pointed snout with a slightly projecting lower jaw. Their mouth is large and slightly oblique; it opens under the tip of the snout and is equipped with large villiform teeth set in bands. Their chin and snout have 4 and 8 pores, respectively. They do not have chin barbels. Their gill cover has 2 strong spines, the lower one being larger and angled downward. Their anal fin has a short base with 2 spines, the second being strong and equal in length to the first ray, and 8 to 10 rays; their caudal fin is rounded; their first dorsal fin has 10 to 12 spines; their second dorsal fin has 1 spine and 21 to 25 rays; their pectoral fins are long and pointed, and reach the anus; and, their pelvic fins have a long filament. They have 36 to 41 long slender gill rakers. They are covered with rough scales. They have a prominent arched lateral line.

The Amigo Stardrum is a demersal species that is found over muddy and sandy bottoms at depths up to 18 m (60 feet). They reach a maximum of 21.0 cm (8.3 inches) in length. They feed on marine worms and other epibenthic invertebrates. The Amigo Stardrum 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, reproduction, and range.

The Amigo Stardrum is a resident of Mexican waters of the Pacific but has a limited distribution being found only along the east coast of the mainland from the central Sea of Cortez southward to Mazatlán, Sinaloa. The fish photographed above represents a significant range extension of this species to the southwest coast of Baja.

The Amigo Stardrum is most likely confused with the Hollow Stardrum, Stellifer ericymba (long pointed caudal fin) and the Professor Stardrum, Stellifer walkeri (lacks dark pectoral fin axis).

From a conservation perspective the Amigo Stardrum is currently classified as Data Deficient being exceedingly rare and seldom seen by humans.