Appearance
Dentex seabreams are characterised within the Sparidae by the possession of a series of sharp conical teeth in each jaw, 4 in the upper jaw and 6 in the lower jaw, These teeth are enlarged and canine-like and they have no molar-like teeth. The scales between the eyes extend to near a level with the front part of the orbit. The flange on the preoperculum is completely covered in scales. The largest species in the genus is the pink dentex (D. gibbosus) with a maximum published fork length of 106 cm (42 in) while the smallest is D. fourmanoiri which has a maximum published standard length of 21.5 cm (8.5 in).
