Genus: Hoplostethus, Largescale Roughy, Roughies

HOPLOSTETHUS

ROUGHIES

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; preopercle with a flat triangular spine; no large spine projecting back from top corner of operculum; anus just before anal fin; 1 dorsal fin IV-VII striated spines and 12-18 soft rays, base of spiny part shorter than anal fin base; anal fin II-III, 8-12, short base; tail fin forked, with 4-8 short, spiny rays at top and bottom of its base; large keeled scales along midline of belly between pelvic and anal fins; lateral line scales diamond shaped, much larger than surrounding scales, and without a small, flat, triangular spine.

A circumglobal genus with 28 species; two in the Greater Caribbean.