acanthopterygian

Definitions of acanthopterygian

1. noun

   a teleost fish with fins that are supported by sharp inflexible rays
   synonyms: spiny-finned fish

   types:

   squirrelfish

   very small, brightly colored (especially red) nocturnal fishes of shallow waters or tropical reefs; they make sounds like a squirrel's bark

   anomalops, flashlight fish

   fish having a luminous organ beneath eye; of warm waters of the western Pacific and Puerto Rico

   Photoblepharon palpebratus, flashlight fish

   fish of deep dark waters having a light organ below each eye

   dory

   marine fishes widely distributed in mid-waters and deep slope waters

   Capros aper, boarfish

   fish with a projecting snout

   boarfish

   fish with large eyes and long snouts

   prickleback, stickleback

   small (2-4 inches) pugnacious mostly scaleless spiny-backed fishes of northern fresh and littoral waters having elaborate courtship; subjects of much research

   batfish

   bottom-dweller of warm western Atlantic coastal waters having a flattened scaleless body that crawls about on fleshy pectoral and pelvic fins

   Lophius Americanus, allmouth, angler, angler fish, anglerfish, goosefish, lotte, monkfish

   fishes having large mouths with a wormlike filament attached for luring prey

   Opsanus tau, toadfish

   bottom-dwelling fish having scaleless slimy skin and a broad thick head with a wide mouth

   frogfish

   fish having a frog-like mouth with a lure on the snout

   sargassum fish

   small fantastically formed and colored fishes found among masses of sargassum

   percoid, percoid fish, percoidean

   any of numerous spiny-finned fishes of the order Perciformes

   remora, suckerfish, sucking fish

   marine fishes with a flattened elongated body and a sucking disk on the head for attaching to large fish or moving objects

   silverside, silversides

   small fishes having a silver stripe along each side; abundant along the Atlantic coast of the United States

   barracuda

   any voracious marine fish of the genus Sphyraena having an elongated cylindrical body and large mouth with projecting lower jaw and long strong teeth

   launce, sand eel, sand lance, sand launce

   very small silvery eellike schooling fishes that burrow into sandy beaches

   dragonet

   small often brightly colored scaleless marine bottom-dwellers; found in tropical and warm temperate waters of Europe and America

   scorpaenoid, scorpaenoid fish

   fishes having the head armored with bony plates

   plectognath, plectognath fish

   tropical marine fishes having the teeth fused into a beak and thick skin covered with bony plates or spines

   flatfish

   any of several families of fishes having flattened bodies that swim along the sea floor on one side of the body with both eyes on the upper side

   Holocentrus coruscus, reef squirrelfish

   on reefs from Bermuda and Florida to northern South America

   Holocentrus bullisi, deepwater squirrelfish

   a squirrelfish found from South Carolina to Bermuda and Gulf of Mexico

   Holocentrus ascensionis

   bright red fish of West Indies and Bermuda

   soldier-fish, soldierfish

   the larger squirrelfishes

   John Dory, Zeus faber

   European dory

   Gasterosteus aculeatus, three-spined stickleback

   of rivers and coastal regions

   Gasterosteus pungitius, ten-spined stickleback

   confined to rivers

   oyster fish, oyster-fish, oysterfish

   a variety of toadfish

   Ophiodon elongatus, lingcod

   food fish of the northern Pacific related to greenlings

   perch

   any of numerous spiny-finned fishes of various families of the order Perciformes

   perch

   spiny-finned freshwater food and game fishes

   sandfish

   either of two small silvery scaleless fishes of the northern Pacific that burrow into sand

   cusk-eel

   elongate compressed somewhat eel-shaped fishes

   brotula

   deep-sea fishes

   pearl-fish, pearlfish

   found living within the alimentary canals of e.g. sea cucumbers or between the shells of pearl oysters in or near shallow seagrass beds

   robalo

   a kind of percoid fish

   pike

   any of several elongate long-snouted freshwater game and food fishes widely distributed in cooler parts of the northern hemisphere

   centrarchid, sunfish

   small carnivorous freshwater percoid fishes of North America usually having a laterally compressed body and metallic luster: crappies; black bass; bluegills; pumpkinseed

   bass

   nontechnical name for any of numerous edible marine and freshwater spiny-finned fishes

   serranid, serranid fish

   marine food sport fishes mainly of warm coastal waters

   surf fish, surffish, surfperch

   small to medium-sized shallow-water fishes of the Pacific coast of North America

   bigeye

   red fishes of American coastal tropical waters having very large eyes and rough scales

   Priacanthus arenatus, catalufa

   brightly colored carnivorous fish of western Atlantic and West Indies waters

   cardinalfish

   small red fishes of coral reefs and inshore tropical waters

   Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps, tilefish

   yellow-spotted violet food fish of warm deep waters

   Pomatomus saltatrix, bluefish

   bluish warm-water marine food and game fish that follow schools of small fishes into shallow waters

   Rachycentron canadum, cobia, sergeant fish

   large dark-striped tropical food and game fish related to remoras; found worldwide in coastal to open waters

   Echeneis naucrates, sharksucker

   remoras found attached to sharks

   Remilegia australis, whale sucker, whalesucker

   large blue Pacific remora that attaches to whales and dolphins

   carangid, carangid fish

   a percoid fish of the family Carangidae

   dolphin, dolphinfish, mahimahi

   large slender food and game fish widely distributed in warm seas (especially around Hawaii)

   blanquillo, tilefish

   important marine food fishes

   cichlid, cichlid fish

   freshwater fishes of tropical America and Africa and Asia similar to American sunfishes; some are food fishes; many small ones are popular in aquariums

   snapper

   any of several large sharp-toothed marine food and sport fishes of the family Lutjanidae of mainly tropical coastal waters

   grunt

   medium-sized tropical marine food fishes that utter grunting sounds when caught

   sparid, sparid fish

   spiny-finned food fishes of warm waters having well-developed teeth

   bream, sea bream

   any of numerous marine percoid fishes especially (but not exclusively) of the family Sparidae

   sciaenid, sciaenid fish

   widely distributed family of carnivorous percoid fishes having a large air bladder used to produce sound

   mullet

   bottom dwelling marine warm water fishes with two barbels on the chin

   gray mullet, grey mullet, mullet

   freshwater or coastal food fishes a spindle-shaped body; found worldwide

   Atherinopsis californiensis, jacksmelt

   a relatively large silversides of the Pacific coast of North America (known to reach 18 inches in length)

   Sphyraena barracuda, great barracuda

   large (up to 6 ft) greyish-brown barracuda highly regarded as a food and sport fish; may be dangerous to swimmers

   sea chub

   schooling fishes mostly of Indian and western Pacific oceans; two species in western Atlantic

   Chaetodipterus faber, angelfish, spadefish

   deep-bodied disk-shaped food fish of warmer western Atlantic coastal waters

   butterfly fish

   small usually brilliantly colored tropical marine fishes having narrow deep bodies with large broad fins; found worldwide

   damselfish, demoiselle

   small brilliantly colored tropical marine fishes of coral reefs

   wrasse

   chiefly tropical marine fishes with fleshy lips and powerful teeth; usually brightly colored

   parrotfish, polly fish, pollyfish

   gaudy tropical fishes with parrotlike beaks formed by fusion of teeth

   threadfin

   mullet-like tropical marine fishes having pectoral fins with long threadlike rays

   jawfish

   small large-mouthed tropical marine fishes common along sandy bottoms; males brood egg balls in their mouths; popular aquarium fishes

   stargazer

   heavy-bodied marine bottom-lurkers with eyes on flattened top of the head

   sand stargazer

   small pallid fishes of shoal tropical waters of North America and South America having eyes on stalks atop head; they burrow in sand to await prey

   blennioid, blennioid fish

   elongated mostly scaleless marine fishes with large pectoral fins and reduced pelvic fins

   goby, gudgeon

   small spiny-finned fish of coastal or brackish waters having a large head and elongated tapering body having the ventral fins modified as a sucker

   sleeper, sleeper goby

   tropical fish that resembles a goby and rests quietly on the bottom in shallow water

   flathead

   pallid bottom-dwelling flat-headed fish with large eyes and a duck-like snout

   Toxotes jaculatrix, archerfish

   any of several small freshwater fishes that catch insects by squirting water at them and knocking them into the water; found in Indonesia and Australia

   worm fish

   poorly known family of small tropical shallow-water fishes related to gobies

   surgeonfish

   brightly colored coral-reef fish with knifelike spines at the tail

   gempylid

   snake mackerels; elongated marine fishes with oily flesh; resembles mackerels; found worldwide

   cutlassfish, frost fish, hairtail

   long-bodied marine fishes having a long whiplike scaleless body and sharp teeth; closely related to snake mackerel

   scombroid, scombroid fish

   important marine food and game fishes found in all tropical and temperate seas; some are at least partially endothermic and can thrive in colder waters

   butterfish, stromateid, stromateid fish

   small marine fish with a short compressed body and feeble spines

   clingfish

   very small (to 3 inches) flattened marine fish with a sucking disc on the abdomen for clinging to rocks etc.

   tripletail

   large food fish of warm waters worldwide having long anal and dorsal fins that with a caudal fin suggest a three-lobed tail

   mojarra

   small silvery schooling fishes with protrusible mouths found in warm coastal waters

   whiting

   a small fish of the genus Sillago; excellent food fish

   scorpaenid, scorpaenid fish

   any of numerous carnivorous usually bottom-dwelling warm-water marine fishes found worldwide but most abundant in the Pacific

   sculpin

   any of numerous spiny large-headed usually scaleless scorpaenoid fishes with broad mouths

   Cyclopterus lumpus, lumpfish

   clumsy soft thick-bodied northern Atlantic fish with pelvic fins fused into a sucker; edible roe used for caviar

   Liparis liparis, sea snail, seasnail, snailfish

   small tadpole-shaped cold-water fishes with pelvic fins forming a sucker; related to lumpfish

   poacher, sea poacher, sea poker

   small slender fish (to 8 inches) with body covered by bony plates; chiefly of deeper northern Pacific waters

   greenling

   food fish of the northern Pacific

   flathead

   food fish of the Indonesian region of the Pacific; resembles gurnards

   gurnard

   bottom-dwelling coastal fishes with spiny armored heads and fingerlike pectoral fins used for crawling along the sea bottom

   butterflyfish, flying gurnard, flying robin

   tropical fish with huge fanlike pectoral fins for underwater gliding; unrelated to searobins

   triggerfish

   any of numerous compressed deep-bodied tropical fishes with sandpapery skin and erectile spines in the first dorsal fin

   filefish

   narrow flattened warm-water fishes with leathery skin and a long file-like dorsal spine

   boxfish, trunkfish

   any of numerous small tropical fishes having body and head encased in bony plates

   blowfish, globefish, puffer, pufferfish

   any of numerous marine fishes whose elongated spiny body can inflate itself with water or air to form a globe; several species contain a potent nerve poison; closely related to spiny puffers

   spiny puffer

   puffers having rigid or erectile spines

   headfish, mola, ocean sunfish, sunfish

   among the largest bony fish; pelagic fish having an oval compressed body with high dorsal and anal fins and caudal fin reduced to a rudder-like lobe; worldwide in warm waters

   flounder

   any of various European and non-European marine flatfish

   righteye flounder, righteyed flounder

   flounders with both eyes on the right side of the head

   halibut, holibut

   marine food fish of the northern Atlantic or northern Pacific; the largest flatfish and one of the largest teleost fishes

   lefteye flounder, lefteyed flounder

   flatfishes with both eyes on the left side of the head

   tongue-fish, tonguefish

   left-eyed marine flatfish whose tail tapers to a point; of little commercial value

   sole

   right-eyed flatfish; many are valued as food; most common in warm seas especially European

   type of:

   teleost, teleost fish, teleostan

   a bony fish of the subclass Teleostei