The rock cod (''Lotella rhacina'') is a temperate

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

found off the coasts of southeastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, the

Great Australian Bight The Great Australian Bight is a large oceanic bight (geography), bight, or open bay, off the central and western portions of the southern Coast, coastline of mainland Australia. There are two definitions for its extent—one by the Internation ...

and northwards up the southwestern Australia coasts. They are also found around the coasts of

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and California. They belong to the family Moridae and are not related to the true

cod Cod (: cod) is the common name for the demersal fish genus ''Gadus'', belonging to the family (biology), family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gad ...

s (genus ''Gadus''). They are also known as beardie in Australia. Rock cod are yellow-grey to red-brown with white fin margins. They have chin barbels. They may grow up to 50 cm in length. They are found in caves in bays and coastal reefs. They are frequently found inshore and inhabit shallow waters in the

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an islan ...

with typical depth of 10 to 90 m. Many other fish species are sometimes called 'rock cod', but most are unrelated to the cod family, and are better known as groupers.

References

* * rock cod Marine fish of Southern Australia Marine fish of New Zealand rock cod Taxa named by Johann Reinhold Forster {{Gadiformes-stub