Embiotocidae

Embiotocidae is the family of the surfperches, also called surfperches, a group of viviparous ray-finned fishes. Most of its species are marine and live in coastal waters from Baja California to Alaska, with a few found along Asian Pacific coasts, and the only freshwater member is the tule perch, Hysterocarpus traski, which is endemic to California. The name comes from the Greek embios, meaning persistent, and tokos, meaning birth, and refers to the way the females bear live young. Surfperches have deep, laterally compressed bodies and a scaled ridge along the base of the dorsal fin, and in every species the males can be told from the females by a distinct reproductive organ on the anal fin. Eggs are fertilised internally and the females carry the developing embryos for several months, nourishing them through highly vascular dorsal and anal fins that absorb nutrients and oxygen from the mother's blood supply, an uncommon trait among marine fishes. Diet varies with species and place: the pile surfperch specialises on hard-shelled molluscs and crustaceans, while the striped surfperch eats mainly amphipods and bryozoans. Fossil members have been found in California, including Eriquius plectrodes from the Late Miocene.