Mottled Mojarra, Eucinostomus lefroyi
Mottled Mojarra, Eucinostomus lefroyi. Fish caught from coastal waters off Placida, Florida, March 2017. Size: 5.0 cm (2.0 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Kenneth Tse, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Mottled Mojarra, Eucinostomus lefroyi. Fish caught from coastal waters off Broward County, Florida, July 2021. Length: 13 cm (5.1 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Ben Cantrell, Sebastian, Florida.
The Mottled Mojarra, Eucinostomus lefroyi, is a member of the Mojarra or Gerreidae Family, and is known in Mexico as mojarra pinta. Globally, there are eleven species in the genus Eucinostomus, all eleven are found in Mexican waters, seven in the Atlantic and four in the Pacific Ocean.
The Mottled Mojarra has a slender, fusiform and compressed body that has a depth that is 37% to 42% of standard length. The head has an extensible mouth that points downward with large eyes and the lower head profile is concave. They are silvery white in color with six wavy oblique bars that joint eight subtle black blotches mid-flank, the last two are the darkest. The caudal fin is dusky and the first dorsal fin tip is clear. Their anal fin has 2 spines and 8 rays; their caudal fin is deeply forked; their dorsal fin has 9 spines and 10 rays; and, their pectoral fin is short. They have 7 gill rakers on the lower arch. Their lateral line is slightly arched and their head and body are covered with rough scales.
The Mottled Mojarra is a schooling species that are found over high energy sand bottoms at depths up to 46 m (150 feet) and unlike most coastal mojarras they do not frequent estuaries or brackish water. The juveniles are widely distributed and can be found in a wide variety of habitat. They reach a maximum of 23 cm (9.1 inches) in length. They feed during the daytime on barnacles, insects and polychaetes. Reproduction is oviparous and occurs at sea. The Mottled Mojarra 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 Mottled Mojarra is a resident of all Mexican waters of the Atlantic including the Gulf of Mexico, with documented large populations within the Laguna Madre and the mouth of the Río Soto La Marina in the State of Tamaulipas, and the Caribbean.
The Mottled Mojarra can be easily confused with a series of small coastal mojarras including, the Spotfin Mojarra, Eucinostromus argenteus, the Silver Jenny, Eucinostomus gula, the Tidewater Mojarra, Eucinostomus harengulus and the Slender Mojarra, Encinostomus jonesii, however, all of these do not have the dark mottled coloration found in the Mottled Mojarra.
From a conservation perspective the Mottled Mojarra is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. are small and of limited interest to most. They are small in stature and of limited interest to most. They are caught however, via seines, trammel nets and gill nets and marketed fresh in limited areas for human food consumption and also utilized as a bait fish.
NOTE. There are eighteen members of the Mojarra or Gerreidae Family currently Included in this website, ten are from Mexican waters of the Pacific and eight from the Atlantic. They are all very similar in appearance and difficult to identify. As an aide to this challenge I have assembled a Mojarra Body Depth Chart that presents these seventeen mojarras from thin bodied to deep bodied which is useful in identification work. In addition, I have also assembled a Mojarra Maximum Length Chart which I have also helpful in the identification work for these eighteen mojarras. Both charts can be found at the end of the Mojarra Family Page.