FWC Fish ID- Soapfish Tribe

Brownish above with yellow to cream below

The upper portion of the head is dark with a pale stripe along the profile

body and unpaired fins are covered in close-set tiny spots (dense at dorsal)

Spot pattern can be uniform or broken with pale blotches underneath

“The freckled fish”

Freckled Soapfish

sloping forehead (kind of concave)

Mottled and covered with pale indistinct blotches and spots

lower jaw and abdomen are pale

looks moldy→ like moldy cheese it is → greater…

Greater Soapfish

body and fins are brownish-red with paler blotches

head is brownish green with dark-edged whitish bars radiating from the eyes

opercle has large black ocellated spot

each eye with a small fleshy tentacle

low spiny dorsal fin

Reef Bass

The body is yellowish-brown with large blackish spots that are in pale rings

pale stripe running along the profile from the snout to the dorsal fin

head also has blackish spots (smaller than pupil)

Small black dots are on the lower portions of fins

pectoral fins are yellowish

dorsal fins have 3 to 4 spines

head has a slight slope to it

Slope Soapfish

1. Which one is the slope soapfish?

2.which one is the spotted soapfish

1. top one

2. bottom one

brown to olivey color with evenly spaced sark spots on head boday and fins

abdomen is pale

head profile has a pale stripe

older has less spots as you go to back

steep head

Spotted soapfish