The fish genus Cookeolus Fowler, 1928 has been in use for a genus of longfinned bigeyes for 90 years, with the combination Cookeolus japonicus (Cuvier, 1829) being widely listed as the only species in the genus. However, the type species of the genus, Anthias boops Schneider in Bloch & Schneider, 1801, is a junior synonym of another bigeye species, Heteropriacanthus cruentatus (Lacepede, 1801) and does not conform morphologically with the bigeye species currently known as Cookeolus japonicus , as noted by Starnes (1988). Given that Cookeolus is currently in usage for the bigeye species Priacanthus japonicus , and using Article 70.3, the type species of Cookeolus is changed to Priacanthus japonicus to avoid nomenclatural instability and confusion in the technical literature.