Image source: Sasuke Tsujita | YouTube.com
Cepola macrophthalma is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Cepolidae, the bandfishes. This species is known as the red bandfish, though this name is also given to other members of the genus Cepola. It is found on the coast and inner continental shelf of the eastern Atlantic between northern Senegal and Scotland and the Mediterranean west of the Aegean Sea and the Nile Delta. It can be found on sandy and muddy ocean bottoms at depths of between 10 and 400 metres (33 and 1,312 ft).Cepola macrophthalma has a thin, ribbon-like body, which tapers to a pointed tail. It is red in color, with an orange or yellow underside. It has large, silvery eyes. Its dorsal and anal fins stretch the length of its body and are connected to the caudal fin by a membrane creating an almost continuous fin. It has a large mouth, at an oblique angle, with thin, glassy, widely spaced teeth. These fish are highly variable in length, but an average length is 40.0 cm total length (15.7 in). The maximum length recorded for this species is 80.0 cm total length (31.5 in). Taxonomic distinguishing features include 67–70 dorsal fin soft rays, 60 anal fin soft rays, two unsegmented dorsal fin rays, and a caudal fin with long median rays free at the tips.
