Stephanoberycidae, the pricklefishes are a family of fishes in the order
Stephanoberyciformes.
They are found in tropical and subtropical waters of the
Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans, and to the
Indian Ocean off the coast of
South Africa.
They are deep-water fishes, only living below ,
[ and have been found down to . It is thought that they are ]bathypelagic
The bathypelagic zone or bathyal zone (from Greek βαθύς (bathýs), deep) is the part of the open ocean that extends from a depth of below the ocean surface. It lies between the mesopelagic above, and the abyssopelagic below. The bathypelagic ...
(deep ocean dwelling) or 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 ...
(bottom dwelling) as they are known to eat crab
Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...
s.
Their common name derives from the large spiny form of their scales in some species.
References
*
*Merrett, N. R. and J. A. Moore. 2005. A new genus and species of deep demersal fish (Teleostei: Stephanoberycidae) from the tropical eastern North Atlantic. Journal of Fish Biology 67:1699–1710.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1245741
Ray-finned fish families