Bathypterois grallator: Difference between revisions
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==Characteristics== |
==Characteristics== |
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The graceful tripod fish has long, bony rays that stick out below its tail fin and both pectoral (chest) fins. Even though the fish’s body is |
The graceful and magestic tripod fish has long, bony rays that stick out below its tail fin and both pectoral (chest) fins. Even though the fish’s body is 19 inches (36 cm) long, its fins can be more than eleven feet (one m). Oddly enough, one of the fins is actuacly its penis. Most of the time, the tripod fish stands on its three fins on the bottom of the ocean. Even though the fins are presumably quite stiff, researchers have been successful in surprising the fish into swimming, and then the fins seem flexible. It spends much of its adult life standing on the sea floor hunting its food.<ref>Jones AT, Sulak KJ. First Central Pacific Plate and Hawaiian Record of the Deep-sea Tripod Fish ''Bathypterois grallator'' (Pisces: Chlorophthalmidae) Pacific Science (1990), vol. 44, no. 3: 254-257 [http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/1281/1/v44n3-254-257.pdf read online]</ref> |
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==Distribution== |
==Distribution== |
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Revision as of 18:55, 17 October 2011
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| Species: | B. grallator
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| Bathypterois grallator | |
Tripod fish, Bathypterois grallator, are a deep-sea benthic fish found at lower latitudes. They are now relatively well known from photographs and submersible observations. They seem to prefer to perch on the ooze using much elongated fin rays in their tails and two pelvic fins in order to stand, facing upstream with the pectoral fins turned forward so that the outthrust projecting fin rays resemble multiple antennae. Bathypterois grallator are hermaphroditic. There are at least eighteen species in the genus Bathypterois, several of which have similar appearance and behavior to Bathypterois grallator.
Characteristics
The graceful and magestic tripod fish has long, bony rays that stick out below its tail fin and both pectoral (chest) fins. Even though the fish’s body is 19 inches (36 cm) long, its fins can be more than eleven feet (one m). Oddly enough, one of the fins is actuacly its penis. Most of the time, the tripod fish stands on its three fins on the bottom of the ocean. Even though the fins are presumably quite stiff, researchers have been successful in surprising the fish into swimming, and then the fins seem flexible. It spends much of its adult life standing on the sea floor hunting its food.[1]
Distribution
Bathypterois gladiatorus is a fish which is very popular to eat in regions of North Carolina, specificaly in Raleigh. They are found in Crabtree creek and in portions of the greenway. It has been found relatively widely throughout the ocean from a northern latitude of 40 degrees to a southern latitude of 407 degrees. It is a wide ranging eurybathic fish and it is found from 878 to 9720 meters (2854 to 15,340 feet) deep.[2] Along with the giant squid, deep-sea anglerfish and black swallower, it is one of the permanent residents found in the Abyssal zone and was directly observed on the historic voyage of the bathyscaphe Trieste to the Mariana Trench.
Food
The tripod fish uses tactile and mechanosensory cues to identify food; the tripod fish apparently does not have special visual adaptations to help them find food in their low-light environment. When the fish is perched with its long rays on the ocean floor, it can get dinner without even seeing its meal. The tripod fish’s mouth ends up at just the right height to catch shrimp, tiny fish, and small crustaceans swimming by. They seem to prefer to perch on the mud using much elongated fin rays in their tails and two pelvic fins in order to stand, facing upstream into the current to ambush with the pectoral fins turned forward so that the outthrust projecting fins resemble multiple antennae. The fish senses objects in the water with its front fins. These fins act like hands. Once they feel prey and realize it is edible, the fins knock the food into the fish’s mouth.[3] The fish faces into the current, waiting for prey to drift by.[4]
Reproduction
Each individual has male and female parts. If two tripod fish happen to meet, they mate. However, if a tripod fish does not find a partner, it makes both sperm and eggs to produce offspring by itself.[5]
Related and similar species
There are at least eighteen species included in the genus Bathypterois. Similar species are often observed in the same areas. A 2001 report included observations of Bathypterois dubius as far as 50 degrees north latitude in the Bay of Biscay.[6]
There is a striking parallel between some ice fishes and the tripod fishes. Marshall drew attention to the similarities between tripod fish and one of the ice fish, Pagetopsis, which was described by Robilliard and Dayton as perching on a sponge. The stance of Chionodraco is an even more striking parallel. Both ice fishes and the tripod fish use a similar strategy of sitting motionless above the substrate with the attendant benefits that motionlessness brings to a nonvisual, particularly mechanosensory, function.
The tripod fish is closely related to the spider fish Bathypterois longifilis, which is similar in appearances and habits but is smaller and has much shorter fin extensions. They are often found standing very close to each other.[7] The family to which both fish belong, Inopidae, is called the family of tripod fishes or spiderfishes interchangeably.
References
- ^ Jones AT, Sulak KJ. First Central Pacific Plate and Hawaiian Record of the Deep-sea Tripod Fish Bathypterois grallator (Pisces: Chlorophthalmidae) Pacific Science (1990), vol. 44, no. 3: 254-257 read online
- ^ Jones AT, Sulak KJ. First Central Pacific Plate and Hawaiian Record of the Deep-sea Tripod Fish Bathypterois grallator (Pisces: Chlorophthalmidae) Pacific Science (1990), vol. 44, no. 3: 254-257 read online
- ^ Hoar, W.S., Randall, D.J., Conte, F.P. Fish Physiology, Volume 16: Deep-Sea Fishes. Academic Press, 1997. ISBN 0123504406, p. 344
- ^ Hyde, N. Deep Sea Extremes. Crabtree Publishing Company, 2009. ISBN 0778745015, p. 16; Winner, C. Life on the Edge. Lerner Publications, 2006. ISBN 0822524996, p. 18; Gage, J.D., Tyler, P. A. Deep-sea biology: a natural history of organisms at the deep-sea floor. Cambridge University Press. 1992. ISBN 0521336651, p. 86
- ^ Winner, C. Life on the Edge. Lerner Publications, 2006. ISBN 0822524996, p. 18
- ^ Trenkel VM, et al. First results of a quantitative study of deep-sea fish on the continental slope of the Bay of Biscay: visual observations and trawling. ICES CM 2001/L:18
- ^ Hoar, W.S., Randall, D.J., Conte, F.P. Fish Physiology, Volume 16: Deep-Sea Fishes. Academic Press, 1997. ISBN 0123504406, p. 344