Species: Hoplostethus mediterraneus, Mediterranean Slimehead, Silver Roughy

Hoplostethus mediterraneus Cuvier, 1829

Silver Roughy, Mediterranean Slimehead

Body oblong, compressed; head large, with extensive skin-covered sensory canals separated by spiny ridges; eyes moderate to large; snout rounded, with a pair of forward pointing spines; mouth large and oblique; an extra bone above rear of top jaw; teeth small, simple, in bands; gill rakers 23-26, 7-8 upper; preopercle with a flat triangular spine; no large spine projecting back from top corner of operculum; anus just before anal fin; 1 dorsal fin VI weak, striated spines and 12-14 soft rays, base of spiny part shorter than anal fin base; anal fin II-III, 10 (9-10) short base; tail fin forked, with 4-8 short, spiny rays at top and bottom of its base; 9-11( 8-12) large keeled scales along midline of belly between pelvic and anal fins; body scales thin, smooth or with minute spines, easily shed; lateral line scales diamond shaped, much larger than surrounding scales, and without a small, flat, triangular spine.

Silvery, with a rosy hue; fins transparent to reddish with black margins on the caudal-fin tips and the soft dorsal fin; the inside of the mouth black, floor of the mouth pale in front of the first gill arch.

Reaches 58cm.

Depth: 100-1463 m.

Benthopelagic over soft and hard bottoms.

Indo-central Pacific and transatlantic; New Jersey to Brazil.