Owstonia

Parasphenanthias Gilchrist, 1922 Pseudocepola Kamohara, 1935 Sphenanthias Weber, 1913 Owstonia is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Cepolidae, the bandfishes.

[1] In 1913 Tanaka, along with the American ichthyologists David Starr Jordan and John Otterbein Snyder, created the family Owstonidae for this genus.

[6] There are currently 36 recognized species in this genus:[7][4] Owstonia bandfishes differ from the two genera in the subfamily Cepolinae by being less elongate, having only 27-33 vertebrae and 19-26 soft rays in their dorsal fin.

They are found over rocky substrates swimming close to the bottom particularly on the upper continental slope, around atolls or oceanic fragments of crust.

The exception is O. taeniosoma which has a more elongated body than its congeners and is found over sand or mud bottoms on the continental shelf.