Flag Serrano, Serranus huascarii
Flag Serrano, Serranus huascarii. Fish caught from coastal waters off Point Palmilla, Baja California Sur, April 2018. Length: 18 cm (7.1 inches). Second photograph affords the local name for this fish – bandera.
The Flag Serrano, Serranus huascarii, is a member of the Sea Bass or Serranidae Family, and is known in Mexico as serrano bandera. This fish received its common name from the coloration pattern of its tail. Globally, there are twenty-seven species in the genus Serranus, of which thirteen are found in Mexican waters, ten in the Atlantic and three in the Pacific Ocean.
The Flag Serrano has an elongated moderately compressed body. They have an overall dark gray-brown coloration that transitions to white ventrally. They have a dark blotch on the upper portion of the gill cover, a purple blotch above the anus and a white to brown blotch above the purple blotch. The anal fins are yellow and the pelvic fins are black. Their caudal is black with a broad white bar at the center. Their iris is yellow-brown. Their heads are long with short snouts, the eyes and the mouth is large and oblique that extends to the middle of the eye and has a projecting lower jaw. Their anal fin has three spines, the second is longer than the third, their caudal fin is concave, their dorsal fin has ten spines, the fourth of which is the longest, and twelve rays; their pectoral fins have 13 to 17 rays and found before the pelvic fins. They are covered with rough scales. The keys to the identification are a large yellow blotch behind the pectoral fins and the wide white bar at the center of the concave caudal fin that is follow by a wide black margin (as pictured above).
The Flag Serrano is found over rocky bottoms at depths between 76 m (250 feet) and 182 m (600 feet). They reach a maximum of 21 cm (8.3 inches) in length, established by a fish I caught, and are virtually weightless. They are a small, rare, deep water species. The Flag Serrano is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.
The Flag Serrano is a resident of all Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean with the exception that they are absent from Magdalena Bay, Baja California Sur, northward along central and northwest coasts of Baja.
The Flag Serrano is a very easy identification due to its size and prominent yellow blotch on the side. They are of similar size, shape and habitat as the Deepwater Serrano, Serranus aequidens (uniform dark tan coloration; dark blotch mid-body on the lateral line) but the markings and colors of the 2 species are very different and easy to differentiate.
From a conservation perspective the Flag Serrano is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are fairly common but too small to be of interest to most. When released, they will not return to the deep and are almost immediately consumed by the Magnificent Frigate Bird, Fregata manificus, who post consumption will always return to ocean twice for drinks of water which provides splendid visual entertainment.