This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we’ve dredged up a peculiar fish from our estuarine waterways, the Oyster Toadfish (Opsanus tau).
The Oyster Toadfish is found throughout the saline coastal of coastal South Carolina. It’s most commonly seen in and around oyster reefs where it nestles between the oysters and the pluff mud, lying in ambush. They’re omnivorous but mainly eat crustaceans, mollusks, and small fish. The Oyster Toadfish is a strange and unique looking fish. It reaches about a foot in length and its relatively flat body is covered in a mottled pattern of browns and pale-yellow. Their pectoral fins are heavy and muscular and their dorsal fin extends all the way down towards the end of their tail, perfect for crawling around the mud and low-speed swimming. They have a broad, flat head covered in fleshy barbels and a wide mouth full of small dome-shaped teeth. When pulled out of the water, Oyster Toadfish can be a handful. These fish grunt, bite, and wield a mildly venomous dorsal spine. Their sting is painful like a wasp but otherwise harmless. The Oyster Toadfish is one of the many species who depend on the critical inshore reef habitat created by the Eastern Oyster and a key part of keeping those habitats healthy.
