The Catalufas
BODY oblong or ovate, compressed, covered with small, firm, rough scales, all parts of the body, head, snout, and maxillaries being densely scaled, each scale with a more or less developed plate on its posterior border; mouth large, very oblique, the lower jaw prominent; villiform teeth on jaws, vomer, and palatines, none on tongue; pre-maxillaries protractile; maxillary broad, without supplemental bone, not slipping under the very narrow preorbital, which is usually serrate; eye very large; posterior nostril long, slit-like, close to the eye; preopercle more or less serrate, one or more spines at its angle; opercle very short, ending in 2 or 3 points; no barbels; gill-membranes separate, free from the isthmus; pseudobranchiae very large, extending along whole length of opercle; postorbital part of head very short, the opercle small; lateral line continuous, not extending on caudal; dorsal fin continuous, the spines depressible in a groove; anal spines strong, the soft part of fin long, similar to soft dorsal; caudal truncate or lunate; air-bladder large.