Large-eye dentex
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-25
The deep dentex of the eastern Atlantic — a red, huge-eyed sparid of 30 to 500 metres, and the fish behind the Canary bottom-fishing modality.
Safety: fish welfare — can cause injury needing treatment. One more point applies here.
Catching Large-eye dentex
Everything here on fishing for it. Each entry opens the page behind it.
- Ground
The Canary island authorities describe six fishing modalities, and one of them is bottom fishing in deeper water near the seabed. Its fish are not the fish of the harbour wall, and they are far less written about in English.
*Dentex macrophthalmus* is one of them. It is a compact, red to pinkish sparid with an eye that is genuinely enormous in proportion to the head — the adaptation of a fish that lives where there is very little light — reaching a FishBase maximum of 65 cm over a depth range of 30 to 500 m. Its range runs from Portugal and the Strait of Gibraltar to Namibia including Cape Verde and the Canaries, and into the Mediterranean.
The Canarian names in the fisheries directorate's table are `antoñito, calé, dientón`, against the mainland Spanish `cachucho`. Three local names for one fish is a good indication of how familiar it is where it is caught.
It is a fish of drop-offs, shelf edge and deep rock, taken on multi-hook bottom rigs and on deep jigs from a boat over ground the islands have a great deal of — the volcanic shelf around a Canary island falls away fast, and depths that would be many miles offshore in the Channel are a short run out here. It feeds on small fish, cephalopods and crustaceans, and it is excellent eating.
It is not a shore fish. Occurring in an island's water is not the same as being catchable from its harbour wall, and this is one of the species where the difference is several hundred metres of it.
How it is caught
Identification
No photograph of Large-eye dentex has passed identity review yet, so none is shown. FishingHQ publishes a species photograph only once somebody has confirmed the animal in it against the species record’s own diagnostic features.
- Scientific name
- Dentex macrophthalmus
- Family
- Sparidae
- Water
- Saltwater
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Regions
- Western Europe, Mediterranean, West Africa, North Africa
- An extremely large eye for the size of the head, which is the deep-water adaptation and the fastest identification in the genus.
- Red to pinkish above with silvery flanks, and a fairly deep, compact body.
- Canine teeth at the front of both jaws, as the dentex have.
- Smaller than the pink dentex and far smaller than a large common dentex: FishBase records a maximum of 65 cm.
- Depth is diagnostic in practice: FishBase gives 30 to 500 m, so a dentex taken from a harbour wall is not this one.
Size
- Typical
- 300 g–1 kg (11 oz–2.2 lb)
- Large
- 1.5–2.5 kg (3.3–5.5 lb)
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 65 cm
Lifecycle and reproduction
Benthopelagic and oceanodromous over a depth range of 30 to 500 m, on shelf edge, drop-off and deep rock. Medium resilience. It shoals over deep ground rather than holding territory in structure as the shallow sparids do.
Not established in detail on the FishBase record and not supplied from the family. Sparid reproductive strategies differ substantially even between congeners — the pink dentex and this fish are in the same genus and nothing about one establishes anything about the other — so the honest position is that it has not been written down.
Feeding and senses
Takes small fish, cephalopods and crustaceans over deep ground, seizing with the front canines. In the low light it lives in, prey detection rather than prey selection is the constraint, which is why baited rigs and luminous or reflective jigs both work on it.
The eye is the whole story: it is a low-light visual hunter, which is why deep fishing for it responds to reflective and glow-finished lures and to baits fished at the right depth rather than the right position.
Through the year
Available year-round over the same deep ground, which is one of the properties that makes Canary bottom fishing a twelve-month proposition.
Distribution
Eastern Atlantic: off Portugal and Strait of Gibraltar to Namibia, including Cape Verde and the Canary Islands. Also from the Mediterranean
This is a biological range — where the species occurs, not a prediction that you will catch one. To browse the fishing geography FishingHQ holds, start at fishing places.
Why anglers care
One of the target species of the Canary bottom-fishing modality, taken on multi-hook baited rigs and deep jigs from a boat over shelf edge and drop-off. The archipelago's steep volcanic profile puts that ground unusually close to land, which is why this is an island fishery rather than an offshore expedition. It is a deep fish and does not belong on a shore record.
Handling and returning
Canine teeth and sharp dorsal spines, and — more importantly for a fish from this depth — near-certain barotrauma. A fish brought up from a hundred metres or more has an expanded swim bladder and will not swim back down. Decide before fishing whether fish are being kept, because on this ground release is frequently not a real option.
Safety
Fish welfare — Can cause injury needing treatment
Fish brought up rapidly from 30 to 500 m suffer barotrauma: the swim bladder expands, the stomach can be forced into the mouth and the eyes bulge. A fish in that state floats, cannot return to depth, and dies whether or not it swims off when it is dropped back.
What reduces it: Decide in advance what is being kept, and stop fishing that mark when enough has been taken rather than continuing to catch and release. Where release is intended, a descending device returns the fish to depth and is the only method with real evidence behind it; venting is a second-best done properly or not at all.
Injury while handling fish — Minor injury
Front canines and stiff dorsal spines on a fish being unhooked at the rail.
What reduces it: Unhook with pliers, keep fingers out of the mouth, and grip across the body with the dorsal folded.
Where to go next
Similar and related fish
Where it lives
More fish
Not related to this page — just the rest of the section. There is little else joined to this subject yet, and a short page should still lead somewhere.
Sources and evidence
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Family, maximum size, depth range, environment, distribution and the IUCN assessment for Dentex macrophthalmus.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: The Least Concern assessment for Dentex macrophthalmus, assessed 18 August 2009.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Tallas mínimas de captura — Canarias: minimum landing sizes and closed seasons — Gobierno de Canarias, Consejería de Agricultura, Ganadería y Pesca — Dirección General de Pesca, with the Grupo de Acción Costera de Tenerife and the Cabildo de Tenerife (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: That the Canary fisheries directorate regulates the recreational landing of this species and therefore treats it as quarry, and the Canarian common name it publishes beside the scientific name.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Why the 3 connections on this page are here, and the sources
Similar and related fish
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Pink dentex
Dentex macrophthalmus has an eye enormously enlarged for low light and is recorded from 30 to 500 m; Dentex gibbosus is recorded from 20 to 220 m and reaches nearly twice the length. Depth separates them in practice before anything else does.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The morphology, size, depth range and distribution that separate these two species from one another.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How it is caught
What experienced anglers do — 1 connection
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Deep-drop fishing
Lanzarote's own authority describes bottom fishing in deeper water near the seabed as one of its six modalities. The large-eye dentex is one of the fish that modality takes, on multi-hook baited rigs and deep jigs over shelf edge and drop-off.
- Pesca deportiva en Lanzarote — the island's own guide to sport fishing — Turismo Lanzarote (Cabildo de Lanzarote) (Local authority, harbour or protected-area body)Relied on for: The fishing modalities the island authority describes — deep-sea, trolling, bottom fishing near the seabed, coastal, rock and reef, and kayak — and the species it gives for each.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Canary Islands regional angling guidance sites — Various Canary-based angling and island guidance publishers (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Canary angling practice: the techniques and tackle used, and the species each is used for.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Where it lives
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Open ocean
Recorded as benthopelagic and oceanodromous over a depth range of 30 to 500 m. The enlarged eye is the adaptation of an animal living where there is very little light, and it is a check on any claim that puts this fish in shallow water.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Environment, depth range, habitat association and distribution for Dentex macrophthalmus.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.