Species: Opistognathus leprocarus, Roughcheek Jawfish

Opistognathus leprocarus Smith-Vaniz, 1997

Roughcheek Jawfish

Elongate, compressed, tapering body; large bulbous head; eye large, high; front nostril a short tube, without a cirrus; mouth terminal, large, extends well behind eye, its rear end straight, rigid, without a thin, flexible extension; top jaw not sexually dimporphic; gill rakers 46-53; fin spines flexible; dorsal and anal fins with long bases; dorsal X-XI, 11-13, spines with tips ridgid, straight, sharp; anal III, 11-12; pelvic fins I, 5, fin base before the pectoral, fins very long (39-49% SL in adults); tail rounded, much shorter than head; lateral line on front half of body only, high; scales small, smooth; nape completely scaled; cheeks completely scaled, 4-5 rows of scales, body completely scaled including pectoral base, breast & belly.

Head and body bright yellow; sides of body with 3 broken lavender stripes, lowest stripe poorly developed; top of back with 4-5 broad yellow blotches extending onto dorsal fin, those blotches separated by narrow lavender bars; nape & between eyes lavender blue; eye with inner gold ring, outer green-blue margin, ringed outside with lavender; operculum with a prominent blackish wedge down rear edge of preopercle; edges of preopercle and opercle, throat, pectoral base and belly white; no dark color inside mouth; dorsal fin with broad blue central stripe, bordered above by narrow yellow stripe that breaks into yellow spots at rear, outer margin of fin narrowly blue; anal fin base with yellow stripe & blue spots, outer half lavender; tail fin yellow basally, most of fin blue; pelvics bright white; pectorals clear.

Reaches 7.8 cm.

Lives on sand & rubble bottoms.

Depth range: 165-308 m.

The Bahamas to the eastern Caribbean.