Painted Comber Art on Canvas in a Blue Bijou Frame.

The painted comber is a type of sea bass that can be found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and Black Sea. This fish has a very large mouth for its size, and it includes many sharp teeth. It may be grey, purplish or reddish with 5-7 dark brown bars on the flanks. The head is marked with many narrow wavy blue lines and red blotches. The dorsal, anal and caudal fins are marked with dots of red as well as medially on the pectoral fins which tend to be uniform in color; pale yellow typically.

The painted comber occurs over rocky bottom and among beds at depths of 16 to 492 ft.  It normally spends the day sheltering in rocky caves and is normally either solitary or found in small groups. It emerges at dusk to hunt. Its diet is made up of cephalopods, bivalves, crustaceans, fishes, and worms.  It is found often waiting at sites occupied by octopuses as it waits at the entrance scavenging the octopus's discarded parts of shellfish. The spawning season runs from late spring to early summer with the eggs being laid under stones near the shore. It is a synchronous hermaphrodite, i.e. each individual has both male and female gonads and may be capable of self-fertilization. They have a maximum life expectancy of 16 years.

If you are an Ichthyologist (Fish Biologist), we are open to your suggestions about how you would improve this description.