Species: Calamus penna, Sheepshead Porgy

Calamus penna (Valenciennes, 1830)

Sheepshead Porgy

Body deep, compressed; head deep, upper profile evenly convex, not steep; snout blunt, not very steep; rear nostril elongate to slit-like; mouth moderately large, reaches under front of eye; top jaw projects slightly beyond bottom jaw; top lip divided into 2 almost equal halves by a horizontal groove; bone under front of eye overlaps rear bone of top jaw; both jaws with equal-sized (none enlarged) canines at front, sides of jaws with molar teeth (3 rows above, 2 below); preopercle border smooth; dorsal fin low, XIII, 12 rays; anal fin short, III short spines, 10-11 soft rays; pectoral fin 15 (rarely 14 or 16) rays, fin not very long, may just reach origin of anal fin; cheeks and opercles scaly, but no scales on snout or between the eye and mouth; lateral line scales 45-49.

Silvery, scales with iridescent lavender, blue and yellow reflections; usually faint stripes along body; sometimes a blue-grey line under eye, no other blue or yellow markings on head; a dark brown bar under eye; a small black spot at upper base of pectoral fin blackish; live fish may have ~7 dark bars.

Size: to 46 cm.

Habitat: mainly on hard bottoms

Depth: 3-128 m.

N Carolina to Brazil.