Q: While trying out one of Daiwa's new Dendoh electric reels off Pensacola, Florida, we pulled up a bunch of these pretty little orange guys from about 1,200 feet. While similar to grouper or snapper, they don't look quite right for either. What are they? How big do they get, and what's their normal range?

"Big Otto" Tartusch
New Orleans, Louisiana

A: Well, Big Otto, this one had me fooled at first, but your photo had enough detail that I was able to identify it as the blackbelly rosefish, Helicolenus dactylopterus. What fooled me was the dorsal fin, which normally has a conspicuous dark area at its base, but a little digging revealed that the dark area disappears with age. This fellow is just about maximum size, which is 12 inches. The real giveaway was the number of soft rays in the dorsal fin, which appears to be about 12, several more than for any of the other Gulf scorpionfishes. Rosefish are fairly common in deeper water, so the depth at which you nailed this one is quite typical. They range from Nova Scotia to Guyana, including the northern Gulf of Mexico. As with all scorpionfishes, those spines are venomous, so handle these fish with great care. — Bob Shipp