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Spade-fishes
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BODY compressed, usually greatly elevated, the anterior profile steep, the caudal peduncle short; scales ctenoid, moderate or small, densely covering soft parts of vertical fins; lateral line present, following curve of back; mouth small, terminal, and horizontal; premaxillaries slightly protractile; maxillary short, without supplemental bone; jaws with bands of slender, pointed, movable, brush-like teeth; nostrils double; preopercle very finely serrate or entire; gill-membranes broadly attached to the isthmus, the openings restricted to the sides; branchiostegals 6 or 7; pyloric coeca few; gillrakers very short; pseudobranchiae present; dorsal fins 2, somewhat connected, the first of 8 to 11 spines which are depressible in a groove; soft dorsal and anal fins high anteriorly, their bases thickened by a covering of scales; anal spines 3 or 4, short; caudal fin truncate or doubly concave; pectoral short, the rays all branched; air-bladder large, commonly bifurcate in front, and with 2 slender horns behind.
This family contains about 4 genera and 10 or 12 species, all shore-fishes, mostly of large size, inhabiting warm seas, and all valued as food. Only 2 genera with 3 species in our waters.
The genus Chaetodipterus has the body much elevated and compressed, the outline nearly orbicular, the anterior profile nearly vertical. There are 2 species, C. faber and C. zonatus. The first of these is the common spade-fish, angel-fish or porgee.
The spade-fish ranges from Cape Cod to Rio Janeiro. It is occasionally taken near New York, and a few have been caught in traps at Menemsha Bight, near Woods Hole, in August and September. It is not uncommon about the mouth of Chesapeake Bay and increases in abundance southward to Key West and Pensacola. Among the West Indies it is known from Cuba, Santo Domingo, Jamaica, Martinique and Porto Rico, at which latter place it is called "Paguala" and is common everywhere in suitable places. It has been recorded also from the coasts of Texas and Guatemala.
On the Florida coast the spade-fish is found through summer and fall in bays, about wharves, rock piles and old wrecks wherever crustaceans abound. In October and November large schools are seen along the sea-beaches, evidently leaving the coast for warmer water, at which time they are caught with haul seines. In that region they probably spawn in early summer and the young are seen until October.
The spade-fish reaches a length of 2 or 3 feet and a weight of 20 pounds, though examples of more than 2 feet are not often seen. Very large examples were at one time regarded as belonging to a different species, Ephippus gigas.
Within the last 30 years the spade-fish has come to be one of the most highly prized food-fishes, and it is now held in much esteem by connoisseurs in Washington and New York, and in the markets of most eastern cities when it is most abundant during the summer months.
Large examples of this species are remarkable in having the anterior interhaemal enormously developed into a thick bony mass.