Specklefin Midshipman, Porichthys myriaster

Specklefin Midshipman, Porichthys myriaster. Fish caught in coastal waters off  Puerto Adolfo Lopez Mateos, Baja California Sur, May 2017. Length: 36 cm (14 inches). Catch courtesy of Jimmy Camacho.  Identification courtesy of H.J. Walker, Jr., Scripps Institute of Oceanography, La Jolla, California.

Specklefin Midshipman, Porichthys myriaster. Fish caught in coastal waters off San Pedro, California, September 2020. Length: 24 cm (9.4 inches). Catch, photographs and identification courtesy of Ben Cantrell, San Diego, California.

The Specklefin Midshipman, Porichthys myriaster, is a member of the Toadfish or Batrachoididae Family, that is known in Mexico as sapo aleta pintada. 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 Specklefin Midshipman have elongated bodies with an oval cross-section. They are brown in color with a golden sheen and have 8 to 12 dark saddles on their back. Their anal fin has a dark margin and their dorsal and pectoral fins have numerous small spots and bars. They have a large head with eyes on top, canine teeth, and a prominent non-venomous spine on their gill cover. They have two stout dorsal spines followed by a separate second dorsal fin with 36 to 38 rays and a long base. Their anal fin has no spines and 33 to 38 rays. They have 4 conspicuous rows of light organs along their lateral lines; the rows under each side of their chin are connected in front with a forward pointing U-shaped row of lights. They also have a row of lateral line pores on their lower flank that ends approximately 10 pores before the associated row of light organs. They have 10 to 14 lower gill rakers. Their skin is smooth and they do not have scales.

The Specklefin Midshipman is a demersal species that is found over sandy and muddy bottoms at depths up to 150 m (500 feet). They are the largest of the Midshipmen and reach a maximum of 51 cm (20 inches) in length. They consume crabs, echinoderms, fish, mollusks, and shrimp. They are a deep waters fairly rare species that are seldom seen by humans. The Specklefn 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.

In Mexican waters the Specklefin Midshipman have a limited distribution being found from Magdalena Bay northward along the central and northwest coasts of Baja.

The Specklefin Midshipman can be easily confused with the Mimetic Midshipman, Porichthys mimeticus and the Plainfin Midshipman, Porichthys notatus, but both lack the spotting and barring  patterns on their dorsal and pectoral fins.

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