About Mottled Sculpin

The mottled Sculpin have no scales. Their eyes are positioned on top of a rather large head. Mottled sculpins also have a relatively large mouth. The second dorsal fin and anal fin are rather long and they have large fan like pectoral fins. Mottled sculpins have 3-4 dark saddles going over their back and down their sides. They have a single straight spine just in front of the gill opening on either side of the head and an incomplete lateral line. As their name suggests they have a mottled color pattern of various shades of brown, gray, and black with a lighter cream colored belly. They also have a dark vertical bar at the base of their tail. Breeding males usually have a bright orange band on the outer edge of their small rounded first dorsal fin.