or blanquillo Any of 24 species (family Branchiostegidae, or Malacanthidae) of slender marine fishes found in shallow tropical and warm temperate seas. Tilefish are used as food, especially the large Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps, a deepwater fish of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico with a fleshy appendage on the head and yellow spots on its upper body and some of its fins. Tilefish have a large oblique mouth with strong canines and one rather long dorsal fin with weak spines