Need help identifying Florida flounder

[archman]

I photographed this large (over 30cm) flounder last Friday, parked at a shallow (<3 m deep) rubble/debris hardbottom site in Palm Beach County (southern Florida, east coast).

The body spot patterns are very faint, and I am currently stuck between (3) possible species options.
1. Tropical Flounder (Paralichthys tropicus)
2. Southern Flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma)
3. Gulf Flounder (Paralichthys albigutta)

Any assistance would be much appreciated.

 

[The Chairman]

Peacock flounder

 

[Wookie]

Peacock flounder

+1

 

[archman]

Thank you for the quick replies.

This animal is lacking key diagnostic features for Bothus lunatus. There is no blue coloration anywhere on the body, and the caudal fin is strongly biconvex. And although you really can't see it in the first image above, the anterior insertion origin for the dorsal fin is distinctly further back than it would be for B. lunatus. The dorsal fin origin does match up very closely to that of one of the three Paralichthyids listed above. Here is a second video capture image that shows the head region a bit better.

I commonly do find and photograph B. lunatus in this area, and it does not resemble this particular animal. I also get P. albigutta at this research site, which is a much closer match to the photographed specimen above, but the diagnostic "ocellated spots triangle" is not visible.

 

[Wookie]

I say peacock because of the nearly closed circles around the spots, although they do not appear blue in your photo, and the shape of the tail. Additionally, the southern and gulf flounders have dark spots on the tail, and yours appear to be white, or lighter colored.

 

[archman]

Yeah, I tried using spot colours as a diagnostic. But it turns out that there's a lot of variability for this within the same species. For at least the gulf and southern flounders, they may have large white spots on their bodies and their tails. It's often about half and half between light and dark spots, but sometimes there isn't anything but white spots on the tails.

This particular fish just seems to have these big, super-faint brown smudges all over its body, mixed in with sparse, very small white spots/speckles. It's possibly the most boring looking flounder I've seen in years, but it's also one of the biggest in size, which makes the visual identification especially frustrating. How can such a big fattie be such a pill to distinguish itself?

Thank you for the feedback. It's giving me additional ideas to pull up additional records.

 

[Wookie]

Yeah, I tried using spot colours as a diagnostic. But it turns out that there's a lot of variability for this within the same species. For at least the gulf and southern flounders, they may have large white spots on their bodies and their tails. It's often about half and half between light and dark spots, but sometimes there isn't anything but white spots on the tails.

This particular fish just seems to have these big, super-faint brown smudges all over its body, mixed in with sparse, very small white spots/speckles. It's possibly the most boring looking flounder I've seen in years, but it's also one of the biggest in size, which makes the visual identification especially frustrating. How can such a big fattie be such a pill to distinguish itself?

Thank you for the feedback. It's giving me additional ideas to pull up additional records.

Maybe a hybrid

 

[The Chairman]

Peacock flounder are bluer whilst young... at least that's my experience.
''

 

[archman]

I pulled up another possibility from another fish book. The "broad flounder" (Paralichthys squamilentus) has a pretty dull body colour pattern but it does include morphologies with large, faded, dull brown spots that may look a lot like the fish I photographed. This species is more of a continental shelf denizen so I didn't initially think about including it. So, maybe?

 

[Lostdiver71]

Could be an Eyed Flounder as they are similar to the Peacock Flounder but considered uncommon in that area.