The Wrasse-fishes
BODY oblong or elongate, covered with cycloid scales; lateral line well developed, continuous or interrupted, often angularly bent; mouth moderate, terminal; premaxillaries protractile; maxillary without supplemental bone; anterior teeth in jaws usually very strong and canine-like, often soldered together at base, but not forming a continuous plate; no teeth on vomer or palatines; lower pharyngeals completely united into one bone without median suture, this bone T-shaped or Y-shaped, its teeth conical or tubular; lips thick, longitudinally plicate; nostrils round, with 2 openings on each side; dorsal fin continuous, the spinous portion usually long, the spines usually slender, 3 to 20 in number; anal similar to the soft dorsal, with 2 to 6 spines; branchiostegals 5 or 6; pseudobranchiae well developed; gills 3 1/2, the slit behind the last arch small or obsolete; gill-membranes somewhat connected, sometimes joined to the narrow isthmus; air-bladder present; no pyloric coeca.