Lizard Fish

Family Synodontidae

REMARKS Maximum length 35 cm. Lizard fish often conceal themselves half buried in sandy bottoms, whence they emerge at great speed to swallow small fish which are swimming past. They are brought up from deep-water trawling. Has a head rather like that of a lizard.

The species Aulopus filamentosus (Bloch) is very similar, but a little larger. Another deep water fish from the same order is the smaller Chlorophthalmus agassizii agassizii (Bonaparte). It may be distinguished at once by the big green eyes set on top of its head. It is sometimes met in the markets (as ojiverde in Spanish, gourlomátis in Greek and occhi verdi, or in some places occhione, in Italian). A drawing of it is shown below.