La Jolla 1/7/14

[Dail14]

Originally Posted by GregAndrew

The two quickest and easiest ways to tell if your fish is not a Halibut are the shapes of the end of the tail and lateral line. Halibut have a tail that is generally the same length on the ends as the middle. Most other flatfish are longer in the middle of the tail. They also have a very high arching lateral line on their side. Most other flatfish have flat to relatively flat lateral lines.

Another easy but possibly painful way to tell is if the fish has teeth. Halibut have good sized sharp teeth while all other flatfish here have none. At least none of any size.