Rock Cale

The rock cale has an elongate body which has a depth equivalent to roughly a third to a quarter of its standard length. It has a short snout and a rounded head which has a small mouth which is slightly downturned and has fleshy lips, the upper lip projecting. The jaws have small, The jaws have small, tricuspid teeth with a few sharply pointed ones too and they are set on 3-4 rows in the jaws. The outermost row has the largest teeth and there are no vomerine teeth. There are two pairs of nostrils, the front pair have fleshy flap with small tentacles on the front and rear margins. There is a wide, flattened spine in the operculum which does not reach the margin. The dorsal fin has a long base but it is nearly split in two by a deep and wide incision between the spiny and soft rayed parts. The dorsal fin contains 17 spines and 18-20 soft rays while the anal fin has 3 spines and 6-7 soft rays. It has large pectoral fins which may be longer than the head and the lowest 5-6 rays are unbranched and fleshy. The body is covered in small, cycloid scales which are embedded in the skin, these extend on to the cheeks and operculum and create a sheath along base of the spiny portion of the dorsal fin. The largest total length recorded is 45 cm (18 in). The overall colour of the rock cale varies from grey to bluish-black, broken by whitish mottles on the flanks and whitish spots on the fins. …

The rock cale is endemic to the southeastern Australian waters of the southwestern Pacific Ocean. Here it occurs from Mudjimba on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland south to the Gippsland Lakes in Victoria, and Babel Island off Tasmania. It lives on shallow, exposed rocky shores, schooling in high-energy zone, just below the surface down to around 10 m (33 ft) where there is good cover of kelp and other seaweeds.