Tube-eye
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| Stylephorus chordatus Shaw, 1791 |
The tube-eye or thread-tail, Stylephorus chordatus, is a deep-sea Lampriformes fish, the only fish in the genus Stylephorus and family Stylephoridae.[1][2]
It is found in deep subtropical and tropical waters around the world, living at depths during the day and making nightly vertical migrations to feed on plankton. It is an extremely elongated fish: although its body grows only to 28 cm long, it has a pair of tail fin rays that triple its length to about 90 cm. Its eyes bulge out from the head on telescopic tubes.
It has a tubular mouth through which it sucks seawater by enlarging its oral cavity to about forty times its original size. It then expels the water through the gills, leaving behind the copepods on which it feeds.[3]
[edit] References
- Stylephorus chordatus (TSN 166360). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 18 April 2006.
- ^ "Stylephoridae". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. February 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
- ^ "Stylephorus chordatus". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. February 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
- ^ Into the Abyss: Deep-Sea Beastiary, part 3. Nova Online (2000). Retrieved on April 3, 2007.
