Bathylagoides wesethi very low on the underside of the body. The colour is dark brown above with black spots and a black patch around the operculum, which extends halfway up the body. The flanks are silvery-grey and the fins lack pigment. The caudal peduncle is narrow, the caudal fin is short, and the lateral line, which is high on the body, extends into the tail fin. The maximum length to which this fish grows is about . The snubnose blacksmelt is found in deep water in the Pacific Ocean off the western coast of North America. Its range extends from 45°N to
Breitensteinia in five to six longitudinal rows on each side, a dorsal profile rising evenly but not steeply from the tip of snout to the origin of dorsal fin and then sloping gently ventrally from there to the caudal peduncle, a horizontal ventral profile to the origin of the anal fin and then rising to the caudal peduncle, a dorsal fin origin nearer to the tip of the snout than caudal flexure, and a truncate caudal fin. "B. hypselurus" has a smooth posterior edge to its dorsal fin spine, relatively tall neural spines on the caudal vertebrae, a shorter caudal peduncle,