Crestfish

Crestfishes are lampriform fishes in the family Lophotidae. They are elongate ribbon-like fishes, silver in color, found in deep tropical and subtropical waters worldwide. Their scientific name is from Greek lophos meaning "crest" and refer to the crest (part of the dorsal fin) that emerges from the snout and head; this structure gives them their other name of unicorn fishes.

They possess ink sacs that open into their cloaca from which they can produce a cloud of black ink when threatened (as in many cephalopods).

Species

There are three extant species in two genera:

• Genus Eumecichthys
  • Unicorn crestfish, Eumecichthys fiski (Günther, 1890).
• Genus Lophotus
  • North Pacific crestfish, Lophotus capellei (Temminck & Schlegel, 1845).
  • Crested oarfish, Lophotus lacepede Giorna, 1809.

References

• Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2006). "Lophotidae" in FishBase. February 2006 version.