A Guide to the Study of Fishes, Volume 2 (of 2)

by David Starr Jordan

Fig. 402.—Stelgis vulsus (Jordan & Gilbert). Point Reyes, Cal.

Fig. 403.—Draciscus sachi Jordan & Snyder. Family Agonidæ. Aomori, Japan.

Fig. 404.—Agonoid-fish, Pallasina barbata (Steindachner). Port Mulgrave, Alaska.

Fig. 405.—Aspidophoroides monopterygius (Bloch). Halifax.

No fossil Agonidæ are known.

The Lump-suckers: Cyclopteridæ.—The lump-suckers, Cyclopteridæ, are structurally very similar to the Cottidæ, but of very different habit, the body being clumsy and the movements very slow. The ventral fins are united to form a sucking disk by which these sluggish fishes hold fast to rocks. The skeleton is feebly ossified, the spinous dorsal fin wholly or partly lost, the skin smooth or covered with bony warts. The slender suborbital stay indicates the relation of these fishes with the Cottidæ. The species are chiefly Arctic, the common lumpfish or "cock and hen paddle," Cyclopterus lumpus, abounding on both shores of the North Atlantic. It reaches a length of twenty inches, spawning in eel-grass where the male is left to watch the eggs. Cyclopterichthys ventricosus is a large species with smooth skin from the North Pacific.