deep sea perch
Hoplostethus atlanticus Collett, 1889
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The orange roughy (Hoplostethus atlanticus), also known as the red roughy, slimehead and deep sea perch, is a relatively large deep-sea fish belonging to the slimehead family (Trachichthyidae). It is bathypelagic, found in cold (3 to 9 °C or 37 to 48 °F), deep (180-to-1,800-metre or 590-to-5,910-foot) waters of the Western Pacific Ocean, eastern Atlantic Ocean (from Iceland to Morocco; and from Walvis Bay, Namibia, to off Durban, South Africa), Indo-Pacific (off New Zealand and Australia), and in the eastern Pacific off Chile. The orange roughy is notable for its extraordinary lifespan, attaining over 200 years. The fish has a bright, brick red color, fading to a yellowish-orange after death. Like other slimeheads, orange roughy is slow-growing and late to mature, resulting in a very low stock resilience, making them extremely susceptible to overfishing.
Wikipedia contributors, Orange roughy; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T08:05:28.044635+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Hoplostethus atlanticus Collett, 1889
- Name authority
- Collett, 1889
- Common name
- deep sea perch
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Trachichthyiformes
- Family
- Trachichthyidae
- Genus
- Hoplostethus
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderTrachichthyiformes
- familyTrachichthyidae Bleeker, 1856
- genusHoplostethus Cuvier, 1829
- speciesHoplostethus atlanticus Collett, 1889
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Hoplostethus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Hoplostethus confinis Kotlyar, 1980 | TrachichthyidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Thickspine roughyHoplostethus crassispinus Kotlyar, 1980 | TrachichthyidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hoplostethus druzhinini Kotlyar, 1986 | TrachichthyidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hoplostethus fedorovi Kotlyar, 1986 | TrachichthyidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hoplostethus gigas McCulloch, 1914 | TrachichthyidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hoplostethus grandperrini Roberts & Gomon, 2012 | TrachichthyidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hoplostethus latus McCulloch, 1914 | TrachichthyidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hoplostethus melanopterus Fowler, 1938 | TrachichthyidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hoplostethus melanopus (Weber, 1913) | TrachichthyidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hoplostethus metallicus Fowler, 1938 | TrachichthyidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Atlantic roughyHoplostethus occidentalis Woods, 1973 | TrachichthyidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hoplostethus rifti Kotlyar, 1986 | TrachichthyidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Hoplostethus gilchristi Smith, 1935 Smith, 1935 | synonym |
| Hoplostethus islandicus Kotthaus, 1952 Kotthaus, 1952 | synonym |
| Leiogaster atlanticus | synonym |
| Hoplostethus islandicum Kotthaus, 1952 Kotthaus, 1952 | synonym |
| Hoplosthethus atlanticus Collett, 1889 Collett, 1889 | synonym |
| Leiogaster atlanticus spinulosus Roule, 1916 Roule, 1916 | synonym |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- Collett, R. (1889). Diagnoses de poissons nouveaux provenant des campagnes de “L’Hirondelle.” III.-- Description d’une espèce nouvelle du genre Hoplostethus. Bulletin de La Société Zoologique de France, v. 14: 306. Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:3MN73. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.