The silverspotted sculpin is a small, well-camouflaged fish of kelp beds and eelgrass along the Pacific coast of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and northern and central California. It's named for the silvery-white marks on its sides and fins, and its face sports little fleshy tassels. Females tuck their eggs inside living sponges.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Grows to about 8 in (20 cm). The body is deep and flattened side to side, brown to green above with a reddish or yellowish belly. Fleshy tassels () hang from the chin and snout, and the first dorsal fin has a very deep notch.
Look-alikes
The crested sculpin's first dorsal fin is smoothly rounded with no notch, while the silverspotted sculpin's is deeply notched. The silverspotted also has white spots on its sides near the pectoral fin.
Why they get mixed upSame genus, similar deep body and chin tassels; their ranges overlap from Alaska to northern British Columbia.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Kelp beds
- Eelgrass beds
- Rocky and cobble bottoms
- Range
- North Pacific: in the US from the Aleutian Islands and the rest of coastal Alaska south through Washington and Oregon to central California; also across the Bering Sea to Russia and northern Japan.
- Preferred conditions
- Mostly , below the low-tide line, usually in water shallower than about 120 ft (37 m). Now and then one turns up in a tidepool, such as on the Oregon coast.
Behavior
- Diet
- Small crustaceans, worms, and small fish.
- Activity
- Hides in eelgrass and kelp. When hunting, it closes in on prey and then accelerates suddenly at the last moment.
Life cycle
- Reproduction
- Pairs mate, and the female lays small clusters of eggs inside the canals of a sponge, where flowing water brings oxygen and the eggs are hidden from predators. The eggs take more than 250 days to hatch.
- Lifespan
- Up to about 6 years.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- LCLeast ConcernLow risk of extinction
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