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Wrasse-fishes
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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.
This is one of the very largest families of fishes, the known genera being about 60 and the species about 450. They are chiefly tropical fishes, living among rocks or kelp. Many of them are brilliantly coloured, and some are valued as food. Most of them feed upon mollusks, the dentition being well adapted for crushing shells. Some of the species will take the hook, but none of them ranks high as to game-qualities. In our waters are about 20 genera and 50 species, only a few of which deserve more than mere mention.
The genus Tautogolabrus contains 2 species, one in Brazil, the other, the cunner, T. adspersus, one of the best known fishes on our North Atlantic Coast from Labrador to Sandy Hook. In southern New England it is called "chogset." Other names which have been applied to it are blue perch, bergall and berggylt. It reaches nearly a foot in length, and its flesh is excellent. These fishes, though useful as scavengers, are a pest to fishermen or account of their habit of nibbling the bait from the hooks.
The genus Tautoga contains one species, Tautoga onitis, which is an abundant and well-known food-fish from New Brunswick to the Carolinas. East of New York it is usually called the "tautog." On the New York coast it is the "blackfish," and further south the "oyster-fish." Though this well-known fish is quite common in most parts of its range, its centre of abundance seems to be on the southern New England coast. Very large catches have been reported from Narragansett Bay. It is particularly abundant about rocky shores, where it may often be seen quietly resting or even lying on its side in crevices or cavities. It is a sluggish fish at all times, and very apt to hibernate during cold weather.
The tautog reaches a maximum length of 3 feet, though those usually seen are very much smaller.
As a food-fish the tautog is well known and of considerable importance, the catch being made chiefly with handlines. And anglers who visit the seashore find much sport angling for this fish. Standing on a rocky shore, form which one may fish in 5 or 6 fathoms, with hook baited with pieces of crab or lobster, very fine sport can be had.
Head 3 1/4 to 3 1/2; depth 2 2/3 to 3; eye 5 1/2; snout 3; pectoral 1 2/3; ventral 2; D. XVI, 10; A. III, 8; scales 14-60-25. Body somewhat deep and compressed; profile moderately steep, well rounded from snout to dorsal; maxillary reaching vertical from anterior nostril; jaws about equal, with two or three large canines and smaller ones on the side, which gradually diminish in size backward; gillrakers very short and blunt, about 3+6; a patch of small scales behind eye, extending downward to middle of cheek, where there are 5 or 6 series, the head and opercles otherwise naked; pectoral broad and rounded, not quite reaching tips of ventrals; soft dorsal higher than spinous portion; caudal truncate or slightly rounded. Colour, blackish or greenish, the young usually with about 3 pairs of dark bars connected by reticulations; adult often nearly plain blackish; chin white; eye greenish.
The genus Lachnolaimus is characterized by the strongly compressed body, the sharp, elevated back, and the long, steep profile; snout sharp; mouth low, horizontal, the jaws narrow; teeth in front prominent, canine-like, in a single series; no posterior canines; cheeks and opercles with imbricate scales; scales of moderate size, thin and adherent; lateral line complete; dorsal with 14 spines, the first 3 strong, falcate, produced in long streamers in the adult, the membranes between these spines very low, the filamentous tips longer than the head; other spines all low, gradually shorter to the eleventh; soft dorsal and anal much produced; caudal lobes falcate; third anal spine strong; pectoral and ventrals short.