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Surf-fishes
Images coming soon.
THIS is a large family, all the species of which are viviparous. The young are hatched within the body where they remain closely packed in a sac-like enlargement of the oviduct analogous to the uterus, until born. These foetal fishes bear at first little resemblance to the parent, being closely compressed and having the vertical fins exceedingly elevated. At birth they are 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches long, and similar to the adult in appearance, but more compressed and red in colour.
Since the discovery of their viviparity by Dr. Gibbons in 1854, these fishes have been of special interest to zoologists.
They are all fishes of our Pacific Coast, inhabiting bays and the surf on sandy shores, excepting 2 species known from Japan. Several of them are found in brackish water and one inhabits freshwater streams. The different species reach a length of 6 to 18 inches and are usually very abundant wherever found. Though extensively used for food, the flesh is rather tasteless and bony. They feed chiefly upon small crustaceans and other invertebrates. None of them ranks high as a game-fish, though most of the species will take the baited hook and are able to make a fairly good fight. Nearly all the species are handsome fishes, some of them being very richly coloured.
The surf-fish family contains 17 known genera with about 20 species, 2 of which occur only in Japan, all the others being confined to the Pacific Coast of America.
The only species which our space will permit us to mention are the following:
The genus Hysterocarpus contains but one species, H. traski, a small freshwater fish, locally abundant in the rivers of central California. It is probably most numerous in the Sacramento.
The genus Abeona contains 2 species, A. minima, reaching 6 inches in length and found along the entire California coast from San Francisco to San Diego. The other species, A. aurora, is scarcely larger and is known only from Monterey Bay, where it is abundant.
The genus Cymatogaster contains one species, C. aggregatus, which is very abundant everywhere from Fort Wrangel to Lower California, especially on sandy or muddy shallows and about wharves. It reaches 6 or 8 inches in length and is one of the most interesting members of the family. It is the common viviparous perch or sparada of the California coast. The above drawing shows a female with a number of young.