Range and Identity
Acanthostracion quadricornis occurs in tropical and temperate Atlantic waters, including western Atlantic records from the northeastern United States toward southeastern Brazil. Peripheral records should retain their location and date rather than suggesting equal abundance across this entire geographic span.
Habitat and Behavior
Adults are associated with shallow water and seagrass beds, with the account extending into deeper coastal water. Young occur in mangrove areas. These habitats can lie close together while serving different life stages, so age and cover are useful details in a field record.
Food and Life History
The compiled upper length is fifty-five centimeters total length, compared with twenty centimeters as a common reference. Foods include tunicates, gorgonians, anemones, sponges, slow-moving crustaceans and marine plants. Reproduction is by egg laying.
Field Note
Include the immediate habitat when photographing a cowfish. A young fish among mangrove roots and an adult over seagrass can both fit this species’ coastal ecology.
All Lakes With Scrawled Cowfish
Browse all lakes and reservoirs with confirmed Scrawled Cowfish records in our database, listed alphabetically.
No published lakes are currently linked to this species in our confirmed records.