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Red-eye Mullet; Liza Ojo de Perdriz
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This species is found from Florida Keys to Cuba, but is not at all common. It reaches a length of about a foot.
Mugil setosus is known only from the Revillagigedo Islands and Mazatlan, it being very abundant about Clarion Island. It closely resembles M. hospes, from which it differs widely, however, in its much larger multiserial setae, and the longer, narrower mouth. It is of no commercial value except locally.
The fan-tailed mullet (M. trichodon) is found from Brazil northward to Key West where it is abundant. It attains a length of 10 inches and is of some little value as food.
The genus Chaenomugil, distinguished by the absence of an adipose eyelid, has in our waters a single species, C. proboscideus, a little mullet, reaching 6 inches in length. It occurs on our Pacific Coast from Mazatlan to Panama. It is not abundant and is not of much food value.
GENUS AGONOSTOMUS BENNETT
The Dajaos
This genus differs from Mugil chiefly in not having the stomach gizzard-like. Cleft of mouth extending laterally about to front of eye; teeth small, in villiform bands in each jaw, sometimes also on vomer; edge of lower lip rounded; anal spines usually 2, the first soft ray slender and often taken for a spine. Small, freshwater mullets found in mountain streams in tropical regions. The American species constitute the subgenus Dajaus, characterized by the presence of teeth on the palatines.
Four species have been recognized as occurring within our limits, none being of much importance as food.
The dajao (A.monticola) is found in freshwater streams of the West Indies and eastern Mexico, and is the most abundant and best known species of the genus. It is very common in the streams of Porto Rico and is much used as food. It reaches a length of a foot.
Colour, brownish above, scales very dark-edged on upper 3/5 of side; under parts white; top of head dark; cheeks and opercles white with brassy shades; axil black; a black blotch at base of caudal, disappearing with age; dorsal spines dark; soft dorsal brassy at base, pale at tip; pectoral and ventrals pale; anal yellowish, pale at tip; caudal darker, yellowish at base; peritoneum black.
The genus Joturus, characterized by the simple stomach and the coarse truncate incisors, contains only one species. This is the joturo or bobo (J. pilchardi). This species of mullet is an inhabitant of mountain torrents in the larger islands of the West Indies, also in Costa Rica, and about Vera Cruz and Panama. It attains a length of 2 feet and is one of the largest of the family.
It comes to the Havana market from the Rio Almendares and is a food-fish of some importance.