This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 12:48 am and is filed under About, Adventure Cruises, Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Photo Courtesy Costa/Patzner/fishbase.org
This week we’re talking ghouls and goblins of the deep and the Viperfish (Sloan’s) of the Dragonfish Family is a perfect subject. Look at those teeth! Their bodies are iridescent silver.
According to Dr. Randall, this species is seen in depths greater than 15,000 feet! They are in warm and temperate parts of all oceans, but there are distributional gaps such as Southern Central Atlantic, Northern Indian and Eastern Pacific Oceans.
So what do these ghoulish fish eat, and where? Researchers believe they may migrate to the near-surface at night and travel back to the depths before morning. Their favorite meals consist of mid-water fish and crustaceans.
How big do they get? According to the experts they grow to nearly 14 inches. I suppose you would have to be a night snorkeler or diver to try and catch a glimpse of this interesting fish. Yikes!
How very fitting that this fish, with the face that only a mother viperfish would love, prefers the dark and deep oceans of the world. Until next time!
