Family Ceratiidae
Taxonomy: Small family with 2 genera and 4 species; all species found in Australian waters.
Distribution, ecology and habitat: worldwide, circumglobal or cosmopolitan; meso- and bathypelagic from 120-2000 m. Ceratiids are broadly distributed at meso- to bathypelagic depths in all three major oceans. Cryptopsaras couesii is found worldwide in tropical and subtropical latitudes. Members of the genus Ceratias are found from subarctic to subantarctic latitudes.
Characteristics:
Females relatively long, slender compressed bodies; head large, eye small, subcutaneous; mouth large, vertical or strongly oblique, not reaching beyone eye; jaw teeth slender, recurved, depressible, those in lower jaw slightly larger than upper jaw teeth; gill opening oval, situated behind pectoral-fin base. Illicium either elongate or almost hidden by tissue of esca, posterior end of illicial pterygiophore protruding on dorsal midline just before fleshy caruncles; 2 or 3 modified dorsal-fin rays or caruncles on back before soft dorsal fin, each with a bioluminescent gland; escal bulb oval, with or without distal appendages. Skin covered with spinules or spines;
Males smaller than and parasitic on females; free-living males with large eyes, minute olfactory organs, jaw teeth absent, pair of large denticular teeth on snout, 2 pairs on tip of lower jaw. Caruncles absent, skin naked, becoming spinulose with growth.
Size: Females reach 1200 mm TL, 770 mm SL; males to 140 mm SL.
Food and feeding: Reportedly feed on fishes and crustaceans.
Reproduction and early life history: Oviparous, eggs pelagic. Larvae characterised by having a "humpbacked" body, moderately inflated skin, small pectoral fins, no pelvic fins. Larvae sexually dimorphic with female larvae possessing caruncles and illicial rudiment. Larvae begin metamorphosis at 8-10 mm SL.
Fisheries: no commercial importance.
Remarks: Females of this family are the largest known deepwater (ceratioid) anglerfishes known, and may be up to 60 times larger than their tiny male counterparts.
Australian species:
- Ceratias holboelli Krøyer, 1845 Longray Seadevil CAAB 37220002
- Ceratias tentaculatus (Norman, 1930) Southern Seadevil CAAB 37220003
- Ceratias uranoscopus Murray, 1877 Stargazing Seadevil CAAB 37220004
- Cryptopsaras couesii Gill, 1883 Triplewart Seadevil CAAB 37220001
References:
Bertelsen, E. 1943. Notes on the deep-sea angler-fish Ceratias holbölli Kr. based on specimens in the Zoological Museum of Copenhagen. Vidensk. Medd. fra Dansk Naturh. Foren. 107: 185-206.
Bertelsen, E. 1951. The ceratioid fishes. Ontogeny, taxonomy, distribution and biology. Dana Rept. 39: 276 pp.
Bertelsen, E. 1984. Ceratioidei: Development and relationships. pp. 325-334, In Moser, H.G., W.J. Richards, D.M. Cohen, M.P. Fahay, A.W. Kendall, Jr. & S.L. Richardson (eds.), Ontogeny and Systematics of Fishes, Spec. Publ. No. 1, Amer. Soc. Ichthy. Herpet. ix + 760 pp.
Clarke, R. 1950. The bathypelagic angler fish Ceratias holbölli Kröyer. Disc. Rept. 26: 1-32.
Munk, O. & P.J. Herring. 1996. An early stage in development of escae and caruncles in the deep-sea anglerfish Cryptopsaras couesi (Pisces: Ceratioidei). J. Mar. Biol. Assn. U.K. 76: 517-527.
Pietsch, T.W. 1975. Precocious sexual parasitism in the deep-sea ceratioid anglerfish Cryptopsaras couesi Gill. Nature 256: 38-40.
Pietsch, T.W. 1976. Dimorphism, parasitism and sex: reproductive strategies among deepsea ceratioid anglerfishes. Copeia 1976(4): 781-793.
Pietsch, T.W. 1986. Systematics and distribution of bathypelagic anglerfishes of the family Ceratiidae (Order: Lophiiformes). Copeia 1986(2): 479-493.
Pietsch, T.W. 1999. Ceratiidae: Seadevils (deepsea anglerfishes), p. 2035, In Carpenter, K.E. & V.H. Niem. Species identification guide for fisheries purposes. The living marine resources of the western central Pacific. Batoid fishes, chimeras and bony fishes. Part 1 (Elopidae to Linophrynidae). FAO, Rome.
Pietsch, T.W. 2005. Dimorphism, parasitism, and sex revisited: modes of reproduction among deep-sea ceratioid anglerfishes (Teleostei: Lophiiformes). Ichthyol. Res. 52: 207-236.
Pietsch, T.W. & Kenaley, C.P. 2006. Ceratiidae. Seadevils, caruncled seadevils. Version 17 April 2006 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Ceratiidae/22010.04.17 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/
Saruwatari, T., T.W. Pietsch, A.M. Shedlock, I. Oohara, K. Itaya, T. Chiyotani, M. Abe, K. Ishihara, A. Sakai, A. Sugawara, T. Inagaki, K. Ishida, T. Komatsu, T. Sakai & T. Kobayashi. 2001. Sibling analysis between female and parasitic males of a ceratioid anglerfish (Cryptopsaras couesi, Ceratiidae, Teleostei). DNA Polymorphism 9: 82-85. [In Japanese.]