Slopefish,
Symphysanodontidae, are deepwate Perciform Fish known
from the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Like many deepwater
orgnanisms the biology and diversity of the group is poorly
understood, with most species being known from only a very few number
of specimens captured in deep sea trawls. To date only twelve species
have been described, all of which are placed in a single genus, Symphysanodon, with another undescribed species known from a
single specimen recovered from the stomach of a Coelacanth captured
in the Comoros Islands. The Bucktoothed Slopefish, Symphysanodon
andersoni, is known only from a single specimen caught at a depth
of 190-290 m to the southwest of the Socotra Islands in the Guf of
Aden in 1974 (three further specimens assigned to this species
reported from the Gulf of Kutch, an inlet in the northeastern
quadrant of the Arabian Sea on the west coast of India in 2003 have
now been re-assigned to another species).
In a paper
published in the journal Zootaxa on 28 September 2015, William Anderson of the Grice Marine Biological Laboratory at the College of Charleston, Mikhail Chesalin of the Fisheries Research Center-Salalah
of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Wealth of the Sultanate
of Oman, Laith Jawad of Flat Bush, New Zealand and Said Al Shajibi,
also of the Fisheries Research Center-Salalah of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Fisheries Wealth of the Sultanate of Oman, describe a
second specimen of Symphysanodon andersoni from
a Fish trap at a depth of about 80 m off Raysut Port on the south
cast of Oman.
This
specimen is identified as belonging to the same species as the
original by the number of tubed scales along the lateral line, which
is larger in this species than in other members of the genus, plus
the number of gillrakers and depth of the body at the origin of the
dorsal fin. It is 204 mm in length, larger than the original specimen
(157 mm), and a dark orange-red in colour.
Freshly
collected specimen of Symphysanodon andersoni
caught in a fish trap off the south coast of Oman. Mikhail Chesalin
in Anderson et al.
(2015).
See
also...
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from their prominent...
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