Sebastidae is a family of marine fish in the order Scorpaeniformes

Scorpaeniformes

Scorpaeniformes is an order of ray-finned fish, but it has also been called the Scleroparei.They are known as "mail-cheeked" fishes due to their distinguishing characteristic, the suborbital stay: a backwards extension of the third circumorbital bone across the cheek to the preoperculum, to which...

. Their common names include rockfishes, thornyheads and rockcods. Despite the latter name, they are not closely related to the cod

Cod

Cod is the common name for genus Gadus, belonging to the family Gadidae, and is also used in the common name for various other fishes. Cod is a popular food with a mild flavor, low fat content and a dense, flaky white flesh. Cod livers are processed to make cod liver oil, an important source of...

s in the genus Gadus, nor the rock cod

Rock cod

The rock cod is a temperate fish found off the coasts of southeastern Australia, Tasmania, the Great Australian Bight and northwards up the south western Australia coasts. They are also found around the coasts of New Zealand. They belong to the family Moridae and are not related to the true cods...

, Lotella rhacina.

Not all authorities recognise this family as distinct from the Scorpaenidae. FishBase

FishBase

FishBase is a comprehensive database of information about fish species . It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web...

 does recognise it, but ITIS

Integrated Taxonomic Information System

The Integrated Taxonomic Information System is a partnership designed to provide consistent and reliable information on the taxonomy of biological species. ITIS was originally formed in 1996 as an interagency group within the U.S...

 does not.

There are about 130 species in this family, the substantial majority of them belonging to genus Sebastes

Sebastes

Sebastes is a genus of fish in the family Sebastidae , most of which have the common name of rockfish. Most of the world's almost 110 Sebastes species live in the north Pacific, although two live in the south Pacific/Atlantic and four Sebastes is a genus of fish in the family Sebastidae (though...

, including the rose fish

Rose fish

The rose fish , is also known as the ocean perch, Norway haddock, red perch, redfish, or hemdurgan; it is sometimes mistakenly called bergylt, bream, or snapper....

, Sebastes marinus. They are found in the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

, Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 and Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

. Over 100 of the species are viviparous, and these occur mainly in the North Pacific. All species have a venom gland in their dorsal, anal and pelvic spines.