Liseta Mullet, Mugil setosus

Liseta Mullet, Mugil setosus. Fish provided by the commercial bait salesmen of Puerto Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, June 2005. Length: 30 cm (12 inches).

The Liseta Mullet, Mugil setosus, is a very rare member of the Mullet or Mugilidae Family, and is known in Mexico as lisa liseta. Globally, there are fifteen species in the genus Mugil, of which seven are found in Mexican waters, three in the Atlantic, two in the Pacific, and two in both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.

The Liseta Mullet has a very elongated body with a rounded cross-section and a depth that is 23% to 25% of standard length. They are gray dorsally and silvery ventrally and on their sides. Their first dorsal fin and pelvic fins are dusky; all other fins are dark. In some fish the caudal fin has a dark margin. Their head is broad, slightly wider than deep, and 24% to 26% of standard length. They have a small terminal oblique mouth with thin lips and a knob on the bottom of their lower lip. They have a blunt nose and prominent well-developed fatty eyelids with a small slit over their pupil. Their anal fin has 3 spines and 9 rays and is strongly concave; their caudal fin is deeply forked; their two fins are high and widely spaced, the first being closer to the caudal fin than the snout and the second originating behind the anal fin and having a strongly convex margin; and, their pectoral fins are short and rounded and do not reach the dorsal fin origin. They do not have a lateral line and their body is covered with large scales.

The Liseta Mullet is found over rocky structures in shallow coastal waters at depths up to 11 m (35 feet). They are smaller than most mullets reaching a maximum length of 30 cm (12 inches). They feed primarily on algae, zooplankton, and dead plant matter making them an important ecological waste processing machine. They are preyed upon by fish, birds, and various other marine mammals. Reproduction is oviparous with females laying eggs that are fertilized externally by males. The eggs are pelagic and non-adhesive.  The Liseta Mullet is exceedingly rare and 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 Liseta Mullet is a resident of Mexican waters of the the Pacific Ocean but has a limited range being found from Magdalena Bay, Baja California Sur, southward along the southwest coast of Baja and from Mazatlán, Sinaloa, southward along the west coast of the mainland to Guatemala.

The Liseta Mullet is very similar to, and can be confused with the Striped Mullet, Mugil cephalus and the White Mullet, Mugil curema, both of which lack the concave anal and second dorsal fins.

From a conservation perspective the Liseta Mullet is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are exceedingly rare and thus of limited interest to most.