Family Sciaenidae Cuvier 1829 (Fig. 5C). Croakers, Drums, Stardrums, Kingcroakers, Corvinas, High-Hats, Weakfishes; Corvinas, Lambes, Cajeras, Corvinillas, Verrugatos, Cachemas, Pollas, Chinitas, Roncachos, Bombaches

Description: Body elongate to oval, compressed; up to 200 cm in length; head short to medium sized, usually with bony ridges and large, cavernous sensory canals, which make the head spongy in some taxa; snout relatively blunt; conspicuous pores on the snout and chin; often a knob, barbell or patch of small barbels on the chin of some taxa; dorsal fin long, with a deep notch separating the spinous portion from the soft portion (rarely separate), anterior portion with 6–13 spines and posterior portion with one spine and usually 20–35 soft rays; anal fin with 1–2 spines (both are usually weak but the second may be large) and 6–13 soft rays; lateral-line scales extending to the end of caudal fin; caudal fin slightly emarginate to rounded (Robertson & Allen 2015, Nelson et al. 2016). Distribution: Marine and brackish, rarely freshwater; Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans (Nelson et al. 2016). Two genera and two species in Nicaraguan freshwaters.