What is "bandfish"

n. Any of many perciform fish of the family ''Cepolidae''

Bandfishes are a family, Cepolidae, of perciform marine fishes. The family includes about 21 species. They are native to the East Atlantic and Indo-Pacific, including the Mediterranean and off Southern Australia and New Zealand. They dig burrows in sandy or muddy seabed and eat zooplankton. As suggested by the name, bandfishes are elongated in shape, up to long (most species only reach around half that length), and typically reddish, pinkish or yellowish in color. They are mainly found from , though most species in the genera Acanthocepola and Cepola occur at shallower depths.

The oldest recipe by a named author involves the preparation of a bandfish. The original recipe book, by Mithaecus, is now lost, but the recipe itself survives thanks to being quoted in the Deipnosophistae.