Body elongate, slender, soft and flexible; large eye with a fatty ring around it; mouth small, usually ends before eye; teeth small, ~ 1 row on jaws; teeth on front and sides of roof of mouth, and base of gill arches, an oval patch of flattened knob-like teeth on tongue; 22-26 gill rakers; 2 dorsal fins, 1st with origin behind pectoral origin, X-XI + I, 15-17; anal fin I-III, 14-16; pectorals long, in adults extend past anal origin, 17-20 rays; pelvics insert behind pectoral base; tail forked, with blunt tips; lateral line high along back; branched mucous canal along flank; scales moderate, smooth, 49-53 on lateral line, on head in a broad band that extends onto snout; sharp bony keel along breast.
Bluey brown, fins pale; inside mouth and gill chamber very dark.
Size: 20 cm.
Habitat: oceanic, juveniles around flotsam.
Depth: 60-100 m.
Circumglobal, tropical to temperate; potentially all of the TEP except most of the Gulf of California.
