Scorpidinae

{{Short description|Subfamily of fishes}}

{{redirect-distinguish|Sweep (fish)|sweeper}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| image = Scorpis violacea (Blue maomao).jpg

| image_caption = The blue maomao, Scorpis violacea

| taxon = Scorpidinae

| authority = Günther, 1860{{cite journal | author1 = Richard van der Laan | author2 = William N. Eschmeyer | author3 = Ronald Fricke | name-list-style = amp |year=2014 | title = Family-group names of Recent fishes | url = https://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.3882.1.1/10480 | journal = Zootaxa | volume = 3882 | issue =2 | pages = 001–230| doi = 10.11646/zootaxa.3882.1.1 | pmid = 25543675 }}

| subdivision_ranks = Genera

| subdivision = See text

}}

The Scorpidinae, commonly known as halfmoons, knifefishes, and sweeps, are a subfamily of the family Kyphosidae, the sea chubs, a family of marine fish in the order Perciformes.{{cite book |title=Fishes of the World |edition=5th |author1=J. S. Nelson |author2=T. C. Grande |author3=M. V. H. Wilson |year=2016 |pages= 440–441 |publisher=Wiley |isbn= 978-1-118-34233-6 |url=https://sites.google.com/site/fotw5th/ }} The Scorpidinae are distributed throughout the Pacific and east Indian Oceans, with species occurring in the waters of North America, South America, Asia, Australia, and numerous islands. Most inhabit the continental shelf in shallow rock and kelp reefs and deeper offshore reefs, whilst others are found well offshore in a pelagic setting. Most of the Scorpidinae are carnivorous, taking a variety of small crustaceans, although some are partly herbivorous. A number of the larger species are fished commercially and recreationally, and are considered good table fish.