Species: Heteropriacanthus cruentatus, Atlantic Glasseye Snapper, Glasseye Snapper, Glasseye Snapper Bigeye

Heteropriacanthus cruentatus (Lacepède, 1801)

Glasseye Snapper, Atlantic Glasseye Snapper, Glasseye Snapper Bigeye

Body oval, strongly compressed; head profile nearly symmetrical above and below; a large, upturned, oblique mouth with a projecting lower jaw; tip of lower jaw at level of body midline; no spines on the head; rear of preopercle without scales, with fine ridges, with large flat spine at its angle; gill rakers 21-25; fin spines with tiny spines; dorsal fin X, 12-13, spines not increasing in length towards rear of fin; anal fin III, 13-14; pectoral rays 18-19 (usually 18); pelvics relatively short, < head length, broadly fused to belly; tail fin slightly rounded; scales relatively large, 9-12 rows above lateral line, 63-81 pored scales on lateral line.

Usually pink to red, including fins and iris of eye; tail and soft parts of dorsal and anal fins with elliptical dark specks; can also be silvery with red and pink blotches or irregular bars, or silvery pink with yellowish fins.

Size: reaches 51 cm.

Inhabits shallow reefs.

Depth: 5-432 m.

Trans-Atlantic; New Jersey to Argentina.

Note: The Indo-Pacific sister species is H carolinus.