Common dentex
(Dentex dentex)
General data
Adult dentex can reach a length of one metre (3 ft), and weight up to 16 kg (35 lb).
Body is oval and compressed. Teeth are very developed in each jaw. Dentex has 11 dorsal spines: 11–12 dorsal soft rays; 3 anal spines: 7–9 anal soft rays. Adults are grey-blue, while young dentex has a slightly different livery, brown-blue with blue fins.
Dentex is an active predator, feeding on other fish, molluscs and cephalopods. It is solitary for most of the year, but during reproduction, it lives in groups for some weeks: fully-grown dentex stay together just two to three weeks during spring in the warmer water near the surface.
Dentex is common in the Mediterranean Sea, but also seen in the Black Sea and the Eastern Atlantic Ocean from the British Isles to Mauritania, sometimes up to Senegal and Canary Islands. It lives in sandy or stony deeps, from just some meters/feet to 200 m (700 ft).
