Whitefin Flathead

The spiny flathead has an elongate, moderately flattened body with a large head, which can be a third of its standard length which is also flattened and which has a number of low, mainly spiny ridges. There is no ocular flap. The jaws are equipped with villiform teeth and there are two patches of vomerine teeth with thin tooth bands on the palatines. The preoperculum has three spines at its angle with the top spine being the longest and extends to or past the margin of the operculum and there is an accessory spine. This species has an obvious interopercular flap. The first dorsal fin contains 9 spines and has base almost the same length as that of the second dorsal fin. The first dorsal spine is very short and is joined to the second spine by a low membrane, and the following spines are much longer. The second dorsal fin has moderately long base and contains11 or 12 soft rays with the longest rays towards the front. The anal fin contains between 11 and 13 soft rays and has a similar shape to the second dorsal fin, is opposite it but has a slightly longer-base. The upper part of the caudal fin is truncate and the lower is rounded. The maximum published total length for this species is 25 cm (9.8 in). although 17 cm (6.7 in) is more typical. …

The spiny flathead has a wide range in the Indo-West Pacific. It can be found from the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman south to the western Mascarenes and east to the Philippines, north to southern Japan, and south to northern Australia. In Australia it ranges from off Barrow Island in Western Australia to off Bowen, Queensland. It can be found at depths between 6 and 75 m (20 and 246 ft), on sandy or muddy substrates on the continental shelf.