Malacosteus niger
No common name
NS
G5
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
There are no photos available for this taxon yet.
Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Stomiiformes
Stomiidae (Dragonfishes)
Malacosteus
Malacosteus niger
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
Moderately elongate and moderately slender; pectoral fins present but lacks chin barbel; body depth 10.4% to 17.4% and head length 26% to 29.3% of SL; snout length 7.1% and eye diameter 14.5% to 23.8% of head length; one nostril on each side of snout; premaxilla with 21 to 28 small teeth; maxilla with minute, oblique denticles on posterior one-half of ventral margin; palatine lacks teeth; lower jaw with 27 to 38 teeth arranged in five groups of one large tooth followed by about 4 smaller teeth; pectoral fin has 3 to 5, dorsal fin has 14 to 20, pelvic fin has 6, and anal fin has 17 to 23 rays; serial photophores inconspicuous, IC number 12 to 27, and OA number 7 to 15; two rows of photophores on each side of isthmus; So crescent shaped and nearly as long as eye diameter; Po spherical, small, and located distinctly posterior to eye; head and body scattered with numerous small light organs; vertebrae number 49
Color is black
Distribution
From the eastern seaboard of North America to Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea
Habitat Associations
Tropical to temperate seas, worldwide; depth range not specified
Biology
Food consists of copepods, euphausiids, penaeidean crustaceans, and midwater fishes
Maximum known size is 240 mm SL
Meso- and bathypelagic (Ref. 58302). It has been suggested that this species does not undergo substantial diel vertical migration and remains below 500 m (Ref. 78501). Feeds on crustaceans and fishes (Ref. 58426).
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2013-05-20. Resilience: Medium (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
Morrow 1964c
Rass 1971
Murdy et al. 1983
Gibbs 1984e
Goodyear and Gibbs 1986
Sutton and Hopkins in press
Goodyear, R.H. and R.H. Gibbs Jr. (1986) Malacosteidae. p. 235-236. In M.M. Smith and P.C. Heemstra (eds.) Smiths' sea fishes. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Scott, W.B. and M.G. Scott (1988) Atlantic fishes of Canada. Can. Bull. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 219:731 p.
Uyeno, T., K. Matsuura and E. Fujii (eds.) (1983) Fishes trawled off Suriname and French Guiana. Japan Marine Fishery Resource Research Center, Tokyo, Japan. 519 p.
McEachran, J.D. and J.D. Fechhelm (1998) Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. Volume 1: Myxiniformes to Gasterosteiformes. University of Texas Press, Austin. 1112p.
Russian Academy of Sciences (2000) Catalog of vertebrates of Kamchatka and adjacent waters. Kamchatsky Pechatny Dvor, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia. 166 p.
Kenaley, C.P. (2007) Revision of the stoplight loosejaw genus Malacosteus (Teleostei: Stomiidae: Malacosteinae), with description of a new species from the temperate Southern Hemisphere and Indian Ocean. Copeia 2007(4):886-900.
Patzner, R.A. (2008) Reproductive strategies of fish. pp. 311-350. In Rocha, M.J., A. Arukwe and B.G. Kapoor (eds). Fish reproduction: cytology, biology and ecology. Science Publisher, Inc. Oxford. 631 p.
Comments On Malacosteus niger