Strange fish identification help!?

Question

found a strange fish on the shore of myrtle beach, s.c.

details: approx. 8" long. dorsal and side fins were soft and dark burgundy, body was dirty brown, and underbelly was cream-colored. had small teeth and lines of iridescent dots all along the body (not many, maybe two or three lines on each side of the fish). shaped like a tadpole, with a large, almost bulbous head leading into a slender tail. i did not notice a ventral fin. anyone know what this is? the dots seemed almost bioluminescent, but i don't want to assume anything. it wasn't hooked, just washed up and was dying. ayudame por favor!

Answer 1

guitarfish?

Answer 2

That sounds like a midshipman (genus Porichthys).

If it was a midshipman, the dots you saw were indeed bioluminiscent. They're called photophores.

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EDIT: I edited my answer because I realized that I was mentioning a Pacific ocean species, and the place you mention is on the Atlantic coast. Sorry!

For the Atlantic, a common species is Porichthys plectrodon, the Atlantic midshipman.

See datasheet here (with a photograph, but not very good):

http://fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSumma...

This is a drawing of another species, but I include the link so you can see where the lines of photophores are:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...