Fivefingers

St Paul’s fingerfin has an oblong and compressed body, its shape altering as the fish grows. it has small head with a small mouth with thick, fleshy lips and small villiform teeth arranged in rows in the front of the jaws. They have a long dorsal fin which contains 17 or 18 spines and 24 to 27 soft rays while the anal fin with 3 robust spines, the middle one being the most robust, and 12 soft rays. The pectoral fins have 15 or 16 rays, of which the lowest 6 or 7 are robust, simple and extended, one of the two uppermost rays are very robust and longer than the others, reaching the anal fin spine. The pelvic fins are located quite far to the rear of the pectoral fins. The caudal fin is forked. The overall colour is grey with darker vertical bars which disappear in air. The maximum total length of this species 60 cm (24 in).

The St Paul’s fingerfin occurs around the Tristan Islands and the Vema Seamount in the South Atlantic Ocean and off Amsterdam and St Paul Island in the southwestern Indian Ocean and on the Austral Seamount and Walters Shoal. It is the commonest fish off Tristan da Cunha. This is a benthopelagic species.