Wreckfish

The wreckfish are a small group of ray-finned fish in the genus Polyprion, belonging to the monotypic family Polyprionidae in the order Acropomatiformes.^[2]

Wreckfish
Atlantic wreckfish, Polyprion americanus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Acropomatiformes
Family:	Polyprionidae Bleeker, 1874[1]
Genus:	Polyprion Oken, 1817
Species
see text

They are deep-water marine fish and can be found on the ocean bottom, where they inhabit caves and shipwrecks (thus their common name).^[3] Their scientific name is from Greek poly meaning "many" and prion meaning "saw", a reference to their prominent spiny fins.^[4]

Atlantic wreckfish (Polyprion americanus) are a long-lived commercial species in the Mediterranean, the south-eastern Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean.^[5]

Taxonomy

There are two species:^[6][2][7]

• Polyprion americanus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) (Atlantic wreckfish)
• Polyprion oxygeneios (Schneider & Forster, 1801) (Hāpuku)

The genera Lateolabrax and Stereolepis have previously been classified in Polyprionidae, but they are currently placed in their own monogeneric families Lateolabracidae and Stereolepididae.^[7][8]