What the heck was in my seabass?!

[Mount_Prion]

Sorry if this should be lounge, but it's about fish anatomy.

On vacation, originally in Argentina but now in Uruguay.

Last night we went out to a nice restaurant and got whole grilled seabass, or as they call it here, corvina. (Maybe that'll help specify the type of fish.)

Anyway, we're taking it apart and behid the pectoral fin, near the top, behind the head, we found this bone that was shaped like a HUGE clove of garlic, or maybe like a small thin onion, but was definitely solid and seemed made of bone.

It was really creepy, and made little sense to me with my (admittedly limited) knowledge of fish anatomy. There seemed to be two, symmetrically placed, in each fish. Another person at the table got one in his fish too, but it was more narrow, and he was eating a smaller fish.

I'm ready to be grossed out! Thoughts?

P.S. We asked the people in the restaurant (the chef, etc.) and they had no idea.

 

[JasonsPlecosCichlids]

Sea bass seems to be just a generic name of a lot of fish in the ocean and at the supermarket but is actually is a different fish. You happen to have any photos?

 

[Fiish]

Croaker stones?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otolith

 

[Oddball]

+1 for croaker otoliths. Saw them in half with a water-cooled diamond blade and you can tell the age of the fish by counting the rings in the otolith cross-section.

 

[Mount_Prion]

Croaker stones?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otolith

I can't hit American wikipedia from Uruguay. (It was really funny trying to google Uruguayan internet restrictions...)

It looks sort of like rings on a tree from Oddball's description.

Anybody have a copy/paste or one paragraph summary?

Also, I'll be back in the states early sunday morning if all goes well so I can just hit the link then.

 

[UnstoppableJayD]

Ben forget what your eating and ship me back a box of Gymnogeophagus, crencichla and whatever else you can find!!!!

Have fun!

 

[Mount_Prion]

Ben forget what your eating and ship me back a box of Gymnogeophagus, crencichla and whatever else you can find!!!!

Have fun!

Hah. I wish. I was pretty much in temperate areas so nothing tropical, except maybe here by the ocean in salt water. I went fishing in Patagonia but it was all trout in the lakes, and even the native catfish they had there were like 5'' max and pretty boring.