Cyclothone alba
No common name
NS
GNR
Collection Details
Specimens
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Stomiiformes
Gonostomatidae (Bristlemouths)
Cyclothone
Cyclothone alba
Description
This species account was compiled from
Composite (multiple sources) (McEachran, J.D. and J.D. Fechhelm. Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.)
and processed using AI-assisted text extraction.
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Characters
Elongate and slender body; large mouth; double row of photophores; premaxillary teeth uniserial and of moderate and equal size; teeth on posterior section of maxilla slanted anteriorly and slightly irregular in size; vomer lacks teeth; pseudobranch absent; gill filaments short and fused basally into broad, crescent-shaped band along hypobranch; gill rakers on first arch number 14, with 1 in corner between lower limb and epibranch; branchiostegal rays number 12, including 5 on epihyal; dorsal fin opposite anal fin; anterior rays of dorsal and anal fin moderately elongate; dorsal fin has 12 to 14 rays, and anal fin has 17 to 20 rays; last dorsal and anal fin rays not split to base; dorsal adipose fin absent; anus closer to pelvic fin base than to anal fin origin; photophores lacking from symphysis of lower jaw and from isthmus; one orbital photophore (ORB) on anterior margin of orbit; OP number 2, and BR number 8 or 9; IP number 3, PV number 10, and VAV number 3 or 4, and evenly spaced with 1 preceding urogenital openings; OA number 6, and AC number 12, with last located between last anal ray and first procurrent caudal ray; opercular and precaudal glands inconspicuous.
Color is white, with few melanophores; branchiostegal membrane between last several rays is transparent or has single stellate melanophore between each ray.
Distribution
Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea in the western Atlantic, north to the northern Sargasso Sea
Habitat Associations
Tropical seas; generally captured between 300 and 600 m (juveniles and adults), larvae usually taken between 25 and 150 m
Biology
Maximum known size is 29 mm SL for males and 34 mm SL for females
Oceanic (Ref. 4769). Mesopelagic (Ref. 58302, 75154) and bathypelagic (Ref. 5951). Does not exhibit diel vertical migrations (Ref. 4769). Lipid content is 5.3 % in fresh body weight and wax ester is 54.0 % in total lipids (Ref. 9193).
Reproductive mode: dioecism.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2012-05-18. Resilience: High (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).
Phylogeny and Morphologically Similar Fishes
Distinguished from other species of the family by the combination of characters described
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: of no interest.
References
Grey 1964
Mukhacheva 1964
Bond and Tighe 1974
Bekker et al. 1975
Badcock 1984a
Schaefer et al. 1986b
Schaefer, S., R.K. Johnson and J. Badcock (1986) Gonostomatidae. p. 247-253. In M.M. Smith and P.C. Heemstra (eds.) Smiths' sea fishes. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Badcock, J. (1984) Gonostomatidae. p. 284-301. In P.J.P. Whitehead, M.-L. Bauchot, J.-C. Hureau, J. Nielsen and E. Tortonese (eds.) Fishes of the north-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. volume 1. UNESCO, Paris.
Mundy, B.C. (2005) Checklist of the fishes of the Hawaiian Archipelago. Bishop Mus. Bull. Zool. (6):1-704.
Chi-Espínola, A.A., M.E. Vega-Cendejas and J.M. Hernández de Santillana (2023) Length-weight relations of 39 continental-shelf and deep-water fishes (Actinopterygii) from northwestern Gulf of México. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 53:59-64. DOI: 10.3897/aiep.53.101788
Comments On Cyclothone alba