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Zalieutes elater

Roundel Batfish
Collection Details

Specimens

Photos

There are no photos available for this taxon yet.

Records

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes) Lophiiformes (Anglerfish) Ogcocephalidae (Batfishes) Zalieutes Zalieutes elater (Roundel Batfish)

Description

This species account was compiled from FishBase (Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2025. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version 04/2025.) and processed using AI-assisted text extraction. It may contain errors in spelling, punctuation, or formatting. When citing, please reference the original source rather than this page. Learn more about our species accounts.

Characters

Body shape: short and / or deep. Branchiostegal rays: 6 (Ref. 36492). First dorsal spine modified to form a lure called illicium (Ref. 36492). Striking features: striking fins.

Distribution

Eastern Central Pacific: Point Conception in California, USA to Peru; rare north of Baja California, Mexico.

Habitat Associations

Marine. demersal. depth range 18-113 m.

Biology

Found on sand bottom (Ref. 2850). Adults feed on small crustaceans and fish (Ref. 4525). Oviparous, with planktonic larvae (Ref. 36492). Eggs are presumably contained in floating rafts (Ref. 36492).
Max length: 15.0 cm TL; common length: 9.0 cm TL.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders. Oviparous (Ref. 36492).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2007-05-25. Resilience: Medium (K=0.3).

References

Eschmeyer, W.N., E.S. Herald and H. Hammann (1983) A field guide to Pacific coast fishes of North America. Boston (MA, USA): Houghton Mifflin Company. xii+336 p.
Fitch, J.E. and R.J. Lavenberg (1968) Deep-water teleostean fishes of California. California Natural History Guides:25. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California. 115 p.
Watson, W. (1996) Ogcocephalidae: batfishes. p. 563-565. In H.G. Moser (ed.) The early stages of fishes in the California Current Region. California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) Atlas No. 33. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 1505 p.

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