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Painted Lizardfish
Trachinocephalus myops (Forster, 1801)
A Painted Lizardfish caught on hook and line by B. Mollard at Quakers Hat Bay, The Spit, Sydney, New South Wales, September 2001. View larger image. View additional images of this fish (whole fish, mouth, front view)
The Painted Lizardfish has blue and yellow stripes or dashes along the sides of the body and a dark, oblique mark above the operculum.
It has a very short snout and an oblique mouth with numerous fine, sharp teeth. There is a short-based first dorsal fin, followed by a small adipose dorsal fin and a deeply forked caudal fin.
The species grows to about 30 cm in length.
The Painted Lizardfish lives in shallow estuaries down to deep offshore waters in excess of 200 m. It is rarely seen because it often buries itself in the bottom sediment with only its eyes exposed.
The species has been recorded from tropical and subtropical waters around the northern coastline of Australia from north-western Western Australia to southern New South Wales.
View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.
Related links
- View the Lizardfishes list
- View the Family Synodontidae list
- View the Painted Lizardfish enquiry.
Further reading
- Hoese, D.F., Bray, D.J., Paxton, J.R. & G.R. Allen. 2006. Fishes. in Beesley, P.L. & A. Wells. (eds) Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Volume 35. ABRS & CSIRO Publishing: Australia. parts 1-3, pages 1-2178.
- Hutchins, B. & R. Swainston. 1986. Sea Fishes of Southern Australia. Complete Field Guide for Anglers and Divers. Swainston Publishing. Pp. 180.
- Kuiter, R.H. 1996. Guide to Sea Fishes of Australia. New Holland. Pp. 433.
- Kuiter, R.H. 2000. Coastal Fishes of South-eastern Australia. Gary Allen. Pp. 437.
- Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House. Pp.557.
