Red Lizardfish, Synodus synodus

Red Lizardfish, Synodus synodus. Fish caught from coastal waters off Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, June 2023. Length: 12 cm (4.7 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Chris Moore, Peoria, Arizona.

Red Lizardfish, Synodus synodus. Fish caught from coastal waters of the Canary Islands, Spain, June 2015. Length: 18 cm (7.1 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Eli (obsessiveangling.wordpress.com).

Red Lizardfish, Synodus synodus. Underwater photographs taken in coastal waters off Bonaire, December 2019. Photographs and identification courtesy of Bob Hillis, Ivins, Utah.

The Red Lizardfish, Synodus synodus, is a member of the Lizardfish or Synodontidae Family, that is also known as the Diamond Lizardfish and the Redbarred Lizardfish and in Mexico as chile rojo.  Globally, there are thirty-seven species in the genus Synodus, of which eleven are found in Mexican waters, six in the Atlantic and five in the Pacific Ocean.

The Red Lizardfish has a very elongated body, cylindrical or cigar-shaped. The Red Lizardfish are reddish to brown in color with 8 to 10 dark bars on the back that extend to below the mid flank where they join a row of black diamonds. Their caudal and pelvic fins are striped. The tip of their snout has a black spot. Their head is long with a rounded blunt snout with a large mouth that extends well past the large eyes that is equipped with many rows of fine pointed teeth on both jaws. Their adipose fin is small; their anal fin has 12 to 14 rays and has a base that is shorter than the dorsal fin base; their caudal fin is forked; their single dorsal fin has 12 to 14 rays and is located mid-body; their pectoral fins have 11 to 13 rays and extend past the pelvic fin base; and, their pelvic fins have 8 rays and behind the pectoral fins. They are covered with small scales.

The Red Lizardfish is a solitary demersal species that are found in shallow inshore waters over hard and over soft mud and sand bottoms at depths up to 295 m (965 feet) within the continental shelf. They are known to rest by perching on hard surfaces. They reach a maximum of 33 cm (13 inches) in length. They are a lie-in-wait ambush predators that primarily consume fish and smaller amounts of crabs, cephalopods and shrimp. Reproduction is oviparous being dioecious with separate males and females; fertilization is external. The Red Lizardfish 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 Red Lizardfish is a resident of all Mexican waters of the Atlantic Ocean including the Gulf of Mexico and the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Caribbean.

The Red Lizardfish is most likely confused with the Sand Diver, Synodus intermedius (black rectangular shoulder patch).

From a conservation perspective the Red Lizardfish is currently considered to be of Least Concern, with stable, widely distributed populations. They are caught as a bycatch by both recreational and commercial fishermen but only retained by subsistence fishermen. They are known to be preyed upon by the newly introduced highly invasive Red Lionfish, Pterois volitans.