Pigfish
(Orthopristis chrysoptera)

Orthopristis chrysoptera, the pigfish, hogfish, piggy perch, redmouth grunt or sailor\'s choice, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grunt belonging to the family Haemulidae. It is found in the western Atlantic Ocean. This name derives from the grunting or chattering noise these fish make by rubbing their pharyngeal teeth together.

Description

Orthopristis chrysoptera has an elliptical, oval shaped, compressed body with a thin-lipped small mouth which does not extend to the eye and is not coloured red inside. The jaws have a narrow band of thin teeth.

The dorsal fin contains 12–13 spines and a similar number of soft rays while the anal fin has 3 spines and 12–13 soft rays, the second spine is slightly thicker and longer than the third.

The entire body is clothed in scales apart from the tip of the snout, lips and chin. The overall colour of the body is pale bluish-grey on the back and silvery below. Every scale on the body has a blue centre and a bronze spot on the margin, creating diagonal orange-brown stripes running up an along the flanks and back. The stripes below the lateral line are horizontal. There are bronze spots on the head and the fines are a yellowish- bronze with dusky margins.

This species attains a maximum total length of 46 cm (18 in), although 30 cm (12 in) is more typical, and the maximum recorded weight is 900 g (32 oz).

Distribution

Orthopristis chrysoptera is found in the western Atlantic Ocean. Its range extends from Massachusetts in the north south along the Atlantic coast of the United States around Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico, including the Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba. It is also found in Bermuda.