Family Veliferidae
Taxonomy: Small family with 2 genera and 2 species; both species in Australian waters.
Distribution, ecology and habitat: Tropical and subtropical waters of the Indo-Pacific; only lampridiform group to inhabit shallow to moderate depths on the continental shelf at about 30-200 m.
Characteristics:
Body deep, strongly compressed, eye large, greater than snout length; mouth small, upper jaw highly protrusible, maxilla protruding freely along with premaxilla, teeth absent. Dorsal and anal fins high, long-based, anterior rays somewhat symmetrical, anterior rays longest; fin rays somewhat retractable into well-developed scaly sheaths at fins bases. Pelvic fins with no spine and 7-9 rays, inserted below pectoral fin base; caudal fin deeply forked. Scales small, cycloid, weakly attached, absent from snout.
Size: to about 40 cm.
Food and feeding: Presumably carnivorous feeding on small invertebrates.
Reproduction and early life history: Little known of reproduction and life history. Oviparous, eggs and larvae pelagic. Eggs unknown. Larvae poorly known - pelagic, slender, possess fully developed, protrusible jaws, functional differentiated guts and pigmented eyes at hatching, and, along with Opahs, possess a single predorsal element.
Fisheries: of no commercial or recreational importance; taken as bycatch in commercial fisheries.
Australian species:
- Metavelifer multiradiatus (Regan, 1907) Common Veilfin CAAB 37269001
- Velifer hypselopterus Bleeker, 1879 Highfin Veilfin CAAB 37269002
References:
Olney, J.E. 1984. Lampridiformes: development and relationships. Pp. 368-379, 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.
Olney, J.E. 1999. Veliferidae: Velifers, pp. 1966-1967. 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.
Olney, J.E., G.D. Johnson & C.C. Baldwin. 1993. Phylogeny of lampridiform fishes. Bull. Mar. Sci. 52:137-169.
Olney, J.E. 2005. Regalecidae: Oarfish, pp. 1009-1011, In W.J. Richards (ed). Early Stages Of Atlantic Fishes: An Identification Guide For The Western Central North Atlantic. CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL, 2640 pp.
Oelschläger, H.A. 1978. Zur Morphologie und Biomechanik von Agrostichthys Phillips im Verleich mit anderen Allotriognathi (Pisces, Teleostei). Zool. Jahrb. Abt. Anat. 100: 118-153.
Trunov, I.A. 1982. Species of the family Regalecidae (Lampridiformes) from the Southeastern Atlantic. Vopr. Ikhtiol. 22(1): 1-6.
Walters, V. 1960. Synopsis of the lampridiform suborder Veliferoidei. Copeia 1960(3): 245-247.