Mottled Soapfish, Rypticus bicolor
Mottled Soapfish, Rypticus bicolor. Fish provided by the commercial fishermen of the greater Los Cabos area, Baja California Sur, September 2010. Length: 17 cm (6.6 inches).
Mottled Soapfish, Rypticus bicolor. Fish caught from coastal waters off Mazatlán, Sinaloa, October 2017. Length: 20.0 cm (7.9 inches). Catch and photograph courtesy of Kenneth Tse, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Mottled Soapfish, Rypticus bicolor. Fish caught from coastal waters off Mazatlán, Sinaloa, April 2015. Length: 20.2 cm (8.0 inches). Catch and photograph courtesy of Michael Verdirame, Markham, Ontario, Canada.
Mottled Soapfish, Rypticus bicolor. Underwater photographs taken in Zihuantanejo Bay, Guerrero, March 2018. Photographs courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuantanejo. Note: there is a remote possibility that this is a Twice-spotted Soapfish, Rypticus nigripinnis, as a clear view of the dorsal fins and the tip of the snout are not viewable.
Mottled Soapfish, Rypticus bicolor. Fish collected deceased entangled in discarded fishing line in Zihuantanejo Bay, Guerrero, March 2019. Photographs courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuantanejo. Note: there is a remote possibility that this is a Twice-spotted Soapfish, Rypticus nigripinnis, as a clear view of the dorsal fins and the tip of the snout are not viewable.
The Mottled Soapfish, Rypticus bicolor, is a member of the Grouper or Epinephelidae Family, and is known in Mexico as jaboncillo arrecifal. The soapfishes are named for their ability to produce a toxic body mucus that forms a slimy, suds like lather when agitated which provides them with a defense to avoid predation. Globally, there are nine species in the genus Rypticus, of which seven are found in Mexican waters, five in the Atlantic and two in the Pacific Ocean.
The Mottled Soapfish has an overall brown, elongated, and very compressed body that is covered with numerous small cream or tan spots. They have an oblique forehead and a prominently projecting lower jaw that has a small black fleshy knob at the tip. Their anal fin is spineless with 16 to 18 rays; their caudal fin is rounded; their dorsal fin has 3 spines (a key to the identification) and 23 to 26 rays; and, their pectoral fins are rounded.
The Mottled Soapfish reside within rocky reefs sheltering in caves and crevices or out in the open at depths up to 70 m (230 feet). They reach a maximum of 30 cm (12 inches) in length and less than 450 grams (1 lb) in weight. They are protogynous hermaphrodites with the females able to change sex to males. The Mottled Soapfish 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 Mottled Soapfish is a resident of Mexican waters of the Pacific but has a limited distribution being found from Magdalena Bay, Baja California Sur, southward along the southwest coast of Baja, in the lower three-fourths of the Sea of Cortez, and along the coast of the mainland south to Guatemala.
The Mottled Soapfish can be confused with the Twice-spotted Soapfish, Rypticus nigripinnis (2 dorsal spines; lack of fleshy knob on snout tip).
From a conservation perspective the Mottled Soapfish is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. The are small in stature and too rare to be of interest to most.