The coffinfish or furry coffinfish (''Chaunax endeavouri'') is a species of

sea toad The sea toads and coffinfishes are a family of deep-sea anglerfishes known as the Chaunacidae. These are bottom-dwelling fishes found on the continental slopes of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, at depths to at least . There have also ...

of the family Chaunacidae. It is found in salty temperate waters of southwestern Pacific, off east coast of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The coffinfish was first discovered around February 1997 in Sicily, Italy by the skipper of the ''Libra'', which was a trawler who was harbored in Mazara at the time. It can be also found in depths of . Deep sea crab fishermen off the east coast of Florida pull them up from depth ranging from 5,000–8,000 feet about 54–68 miles off the coast. They have a globose and spiny body that grows to a maximum length of (SL male/unsexed) and a black mouth lining and an illicium on the snout that can be lowered into a groove.

Distribution

Endemic to the temperate waters of the southwestern

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, off east coast of

Habitat

Benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

, muddy bottom of the ocean, Australian continental shelf and upper slope in the deep ocean, usually 200m–2500m. The Indian Ocean also has two different types of coffinfish residing in its deep waters: ''Chaunax nebulosus'' and ''Chaunax africanus''. They differ in color due to different markings on dorsal parts. ''C. nebolosus'' has green spots and black markings, while ''C. africanus'' has long narrow brown bars.

Physical description

Rounded body and

ventrally Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position prov ...

compressed with loose skin; tapering to a small rounded tail. Head very large and

globose A sphere () is a geometrical object that is a three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. A sphere is the set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three-dimensional space.. That given point is the ce ...

with especially prominent open lateral-line canals; eyes

dorsolateral Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position prov ...

; the mouth is large, oblique to nearly vertical, with relatively small, sharp slender teeth. Lure is short, located just behind snout within a depression that it rests in; the

esca The anglerfish are fish of the teleost order Lophiiformes (). They are bony fish named for their characteristic mode of predation, in which a modified luminescent fin ray (the esca or illicium) acts as a lure for other fish. The luminescence ...

is mop-like, a dense cluster of numerous, short, thread-like cirri. The skin is densely covered with small to minute spine-like scales that are somewhat similar both in shape and feel to

placoid A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scale (zoology), scales, which can also provide effective Underwater camouflage, camouflage through the us ...

scales of sharks. Single open lateral-line canal on body joining conspicuous canals on head and extending posteriorly to proximal portion of caudal fin. Anal-fin rays 6 or 7 (usually 7); Soft

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

with 10 to 12 rays;

pectoral fins Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

narrow and paddle-like, with 10 to 15 soft rays; greatest distance between anterolateral angles of sphenotic bones is 15 to 23% of the standard length. 10 to 13 Neuromasts in a supraorbital row, 2 to 4

neuromasts The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial ...

in the upper pre- opercular row, 3 to 5 neuromasts in the lower pre-opercular row, 10 to 13 in pectoral row, 29 to 42 in lateral line. The color of ''C. endeavouri'' is generally pink, reddish, orange, or rose-colored; some with pale diffuse spots of yellow or olive green.

Reproduction and development

''C. endeavouri'' lays eggs in buoyant mucous ribbon-like “rafts”.Caruso, John H. and Theodore W. Pietsch. 2007. Chaunacidae. Coffinfishes, seatoads, gapers. Version 02 October 2007. http://tolweb.org/Chaunacidae/21997/2007.10.02 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/ These buoyant rafts are an excellent device for broadcasting a large number of small eggs over great geographic distances providing for development in relatively productive surface waters.Lasker, R. (ed.) (1984).Marine Fish Larvae. Morphology, Ecology, and Relation to Fisheries. Seattle:Washington Sea Grant Program. After hatching, the larvae swim to the surface and feed on

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...

. As they mature, they return to the depths below. The morphology of the larval stage seems to reflect an adaptation to a long larval life. The larvae are translucent, round and found in the pelagic zone, unlike the benthic, dorsoventrally compressed adults.

Behavior

''C. endeavouri'' has inflatable gills that it uses to fill its body with water, acting as a defense mechanism much like the

pufferfish Tetraodontidae is a family of primarily marine and estuarine fish of the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfis ...

. When the gill chambers are completely filled with water, there is no inhalation or exhalation for 26 to 245 seconds. This is beneficial for energy preservation. The body of the ''C. endeavouri'' will increase in volume by 30% with full gill chambers and will protect it against predators.

Food Habits

Adults are ambush predators that use small lures above their snouts to attract small, invertebrate

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

s to their mouths. Little is known about the diet of larval and juvenile ''C. endeavouri'', but they likely eat plankton during their

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or wa ...

stage. They also like to eat shrimps and other fish. They are also a source of food for many other bug sea creatures. (Ho, Two new species of the coffinfish genus Chaunax (Lophiiformes: Chaunacidae) from the Indian Ocean)

Perception

A very large number of lateral line canals allow the ''C. endeavouri'' to detect movement in their surroundings as they often live in low-visibility areas. This is especially beneficial as an ambush predator.

Predation

There is evidence suggesting that various kinds of

anglerfish The anglerfish are fish of the teleost order Lophiiformes (). They are bony fish named for their characteristic mode of predation, in which a modified luminescent fin ray (the esca or illicium) acts as a lure for other fish. The luminescence ...

– including large species – are consumed by larger predatory fishes such as sharks.

Ecosystem roles

The ''C. endeavouri'' is a deep ocean, benthic predator of small crustaceans, like Acanthomysis microps, a deep sea shrimp. And predated by deep sea piscivores like cow sharks.

Economic importance

Chaunax have been bycatch for deep sea trawlers.

Conservation

''C. endeavouri'' was categorized as “High Risk” from oceanic trawlers in an Ecological Risk Assessment by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority due to their high susceptibility to trawlers (Being benthic) and relatively low productivity. However, they are non-threatened due to their wide area of distribution.Wayte, S., Dowdney, J., Williams, A., Bulman, C., Sporcic, M., Fuller, M., Smith, A. (2007) Ecological Risk Assessment for the Effects of Fishing: Report for the otter trawl sub-fishery of the Commonwealth trawl sector of the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery. Report for the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, Canberra.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2487841 Chaunacidae Fish of the Indian Ocean Fish of the Pacific Ocean Marine fish of Australia Endemic fauna of Australia Taxa named by Gilbert Percy Whitley Fish described in 1929