Hogfish

Photo take at -40 ft on a Caribbean reef, this beauty just pass give me the time to take 2 shots. The hogfish is one of the larger species of wrasses and is found in the western Atlantic OceanThe hogfish is characterized by a large laterally compressed body shape. It possesses a very elongated snout which it uses to search for crustaceans buried in the sediment. Interestingly it is from this very long “pig-like” snout and its rooting behavior that the hogfish gets its name. The caudal, or tail fin, is somewhat lunate and the pectoral fins are along the lateral sides of the body with the paired pelvic fins directly below. A prominent black spot behind the pectoral fins differentiates male from females. The dorsal fin, usually is composed of three or four long dorsal spines followed by a series of shorter dorsal spines.