Family: PRIACANTHIDAE, Bigeyes, Bullseyes, Glasseyes, Catalufas, Bigeye

FAMILY PRIACANTHIDAE

BIGEYES, BULLSEYES, GLASSEYES, CATALUFAS

Medium sized fishes (25-70 cm) with strongly compressed, deep bodies; very large eyes; a large, upturned, oblique mouth with a projecting lower jaw; no spines on the head; most with a prominent to flat spine at bottom corner of the preopercle; fin spines with tiny spines; dorsal fin X, 11-15; anal fin III, 10-16; pelvic fins short to long, inserted before pectoral base, widely joined to the belly; tail fin variably shaped; small scales.

The family occurs in all warm seas and contains four genera with 19 species, all but three of which inhabit the Indo-West Pacific region. In our region there are four species from four genera, two of them circumtropical, one trans-Atlantic and one W Atlantic.