Pancake Batfish

The Pancake Batfish (Halieutichthys aculeatus) is a species of fish in the batfish family (Ogcocephalidae). Batfishes in general are characterized by a depressed body disk, which in most species (including those in Halieutichthys) appears circular or triangular in dorsal view, Species in the genus Halieutichthys, known generally as pancake batfishes, are bottom-dwellers and are often found over sandy substrata at depths ranging from 10 m to more than 800 m. Members of this genus occur in the western Atlantic Ocean, including the coasts of the southern United States, the West Indies, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. Research published in 2010 revealed that what had previously been treated as a single species, H. aculeatus, was actually a complex of several similar species. Ho et al. (2010) reviewed the morphology and complex taxonomic history of the genus Halieutichthys, including the description of two new species, distinct from H. aculeatus and belonging to what they now refer to as the H. aculeatus complex. Members of the H. aculeatus complex occur mainly along the Atlantic coast of the southern United States and in the Gulf of Mexico (whereas members of the H. caribbaeus complex occur mainly in the Caribbean and West Indies). They have a reticulate pattern on the dorsal surface of the body, many tubercles on the tail, and usually two black bands extending fully across the pectoral fin. (Ho et al. 2010).

This species of the H. aculeatus complex is distinguished by having 2 narrow black bands across pectoral fin; with well-developed outer sphenotic tubercle and strongly reduced inner sphenotic tubercle; tubercles relatively small but sharp; tubercles almost always absent dorsal to orbit; relatively fine reticulate pigmentation pattern on dorsal surface (i.e. densely arranged network of melanophores); relatively small with adult body size usually attaining

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Dorsal soft rays (total): 46; Analspines: 0

Inhabits bare sandy bottom where, during the day, it rests partly covered by a thin layer of sand (Ref. 5521).

The pancake batfish (Halieutichthys aculeatus) belongs to the batfish family Ogcocephalidae. Their distributrition includes western Atlantic, North Carolina, northern Gulf of Mexico to northern South America. They inhabit a subtropical, sandy, reef-associated, and 45–820 m deep environment.

They live on the bottom of the ocean, covered in sand. The fish are flat, resembling pancakes with a maximum size of ca. 10 cm. They feed on small snails, clams, crustaceans, scallops, worms, and occasionally on small fishes. Their eggs and larvae are pelagic and develop upon reaching the bottom.

Two new species of Halieutichthys batfish were discovered in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, in the region directly affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The two species were named Halieutichthys intermedius and Halieutichthys bispinosus.

Western Atlantic: Bahamas, North Carolina (USA) and northern Gulf of Mexico to northern South America

benthic