Sheepshead

The sheepshead is a deep-bodied Atlantic fish, usually around 35 cm but reaching up to 91 cm and 9.6 kg, best known for a mouth full of broad, human-like teeth.

Also known as: sheephead, sheepshead seabream, sheepshead porgy

The dark bars fade as the fish grows, but its broad, flattened, sheep-like teeth stay visible in the open mouth at any age - the reliable mark once the stripes are gone.

This fish has an oval, flattened body and a small, blunt head. Adults are silvery to greenish-yellow with an olive back, and young fish show five or six dark vertical bars along the sides that fade as they age. The tail and pectoral fins are greenish, while the dorsal, anal, and belly fins are dark.

Sheepshead live in coastal waters from Nova Scotia to southern Brazil, including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. They gather around rock pilings, jetties, piers, and mangrove roots, and often move into brackish bays, estuaries, and tidal creeks, sometimes even pushing into freshwater near warm winter discharges.

Young sheepshead feed on tiny zooplankton and worms in seagrass beds before growing large enough to join the adults. Adults are omnivores that crush crabs, shellfish, and barnacles with their broad teeth and also eat small fish. They move offshore to spawn in early spring, then return to coastal waters.

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  Annular Seabream

  Diplodus annularis

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  Common Dentex

  Dentex dentex

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  Common Pandora

  Pagellus erythrinus

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  Common Two-banded Seabream

  Diplodus vulgaris

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  Gilthead seabream

  Sparus aurata

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  Saddled Seabream

  Oblada melanurus