Reef Croaker

Odontoscion dentex has a short, rather oblong and compressed bodies, with a smoothly arched dorsal profile. It has a low head with a conical snout and a large eye. There is a small protuberance on the tip of the lower jaw. The mouth is moderately large, upwards pointing and has a protruding lower jaw. There is a row of large teeth in the front of each jaw, with a pair of canines at the tip of the lower jaw. The snout has 8 pores and there are a further 4 pores on the chin, which does not have a barbel. The preoperculum is smooth. The dorsal fin is supported by 11 or 12 spines before the incision and by a single spine and between 23 and 26 soft rays to the rear of the incision, The anal fin has 2 spines and 8 or 9 soft rays, with the second robust spine being 75% of the length of the first soft ray. The overall colour is dark grey with dark spots on the scales, the internal surface of the operculum is black and there is a large black spot at the axil of the pectoral fins. The maximum published total length for the reef croaker is 30 cm (12 in), although 18 cm (7.1 in) is more typical.

Odontoscion dentex is found in the tropical Western Atlantic Ocean from Florida and Cuba to southern Brazil, although it is absent from the Bahamas. It is found within caves and crevices or in corals as depths between 1 and 30 m (3 ft 3 in and 98 ft 5 in).

Odontoscion dentex has the generic name Odontoscion which is a combination of odontos, meaning teeth, a reference to the 6 or 7 large canine-like teeth on each side of both jaws of the type species, with scion, a modern Greek name of the shi drum (Umbrina cirrosa), which Gill chose in preference to "sciaena" because he thought that it sounded better, similar to his coining of Cynoscion. The specific name dentex means toothed and also refers to the large teeth.