The Mooneyes
BODY elongate, compressed, covered with moderate-sized, brilliantly silvery, cycloid scales; head naked, short, the snout blunt; mouth moderate, oblique, terminal, the jaws about equal; premaxillaries not protractile; dentition very complete; premaxillary and dentary bones with small, wide-set, cardiform teeth; maxillaries with weak teeth; a row of strong teeth around the margin of the tongue, the anterior canine and very strong; between these is a band of short, close-set teeth; vomer with a long, double series of close-set, small teeth; similar series on the palatines, sphenoid and pterygoids; eye very large, the adipose eyelid not much developed; preorbital very narrow; nostrils large, those of the same side close together, separated by a flap; gill-membranes not connected, free from the isthmus, a fold of skin covering their base; no gular plate; branchiostegals 8 to 10; gill-rakers few, short and thick; no pseudobranchae; lateral line straight; belly not serrated; dorsal fin rather posterior; anal elongate, low; ventrals well developed, caudal strongly forked; no adipose fin; stomach horseshoe-shaped; without blind sac; one pyloric coecum; air-bladder large; no oviduct, the eggs falling into the cavity of the abdomen before exclusion.
