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We Are Family: Cod forms part of the common name of many other fish no longer classified
in the genus Gadus. Many of these are members of the family Gadidae,
and several were formerly classified in genus Gadus; others are
members of three related families whose names include the word "cod":
the morid cods, Moridae (100 or so species); the eel cods, Muraenolepididae (4 species); and the Eucla cod, Euclichthyidae (1 species). The
tadpole cod family (Ranicipitidae) has now been absorbed within
Gadidae.
Marketable Name: However there are also fish commonly known as cod that are quite
unrelated to the genus Gadus. Part of this confusion of names is
market-driven.  Since the decline in cod stocks has made the Atlantic
cod harder to catch, cod replacements are marketed under names of
the form "x cod", and culinary rather than phyletic similarity
has governed the emergence of these names. A very large number of
fish have thus been named as some kind of cod at some time. The
following species, however, seem to have well established common
names including the word "cod"; note that all are Southern
Hemisphere species.
A Fish called...:Almost all the fish known as coral cod, reef cod or rock cod are
also in order Perciformes. Most are better known as groupers, and
belong to the family Serranidae. Others belong to the Nototheniidiae.
Two exceptions are the Australasian Red Rock Cod, which belongs
to a different order and the fish known simply as the Rock cod in
New Zealand, Lotella rhacina, which as noted above actually is related
to the true cod.
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