Texas Gulf Coast Fishing

Bayou Killifish

BAYOU KILLIFISH - Fundulus pulvereus

Coloration: Base color of females olive to dark gray-blue above, shading to gold on sides and to silvery or cream on belly; large discrete dark dots scattered over body, chiefly confined to area above midline or slightly below (dotting quite variable); some females with faint, broken horizontal stripes; fins pale to dusky and pectorals yellowish at base; suborbital occasionally golden. Males with 12-17 bluish vertical stripes, with silvery interfaces of same width; fainter horizontal stripes sometimes present; olive on back and silvery on belly; black and white horizontal stripes on posterior portion of dorsal; anal and dorsal fins dusky, or anal sometimes yellowish dusky; caudal fin dusky yellowish; dorsal ocellus clear, faint, or absent.
Distribution: Ranges from Corpus Christi, Texas to Mobile, Alabama, on Gulf Coast and from St. John’s River, Florida, to lower York River, Virginia, on Atlantic slope.
Habitat: Occurs in brackish marshes, bayous, freshwater rivers, and rice fields on Gulf Coast, and barrier beach ponds on Atlantic slope. Found in bayous and marshes on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, in fresh and brackish water.