Skip to content

Spottyface Whiptail Coelorinchus acanthiger Barnard, 1925
[CAAB 37 232042]

Distribution Map see an interactive map here (new window)

Distribution, ecology and habitat:

Widespread in temperate waters of southern hemisphere, from Atlantic coast of South Africa across Indian Ocean to Australia and New Zealand; bathydemersal on continental slope at 520-1500 m; in Australian waters collected at 520-1170 m, most commonly, 800-1100 m.

Size:

To 50 cm TL.

Food and feeding:

Reproduction and early life history:

Characteristics:

D II, 8-9; P 17-19; V 7; GR 8-9; BR 6; PC 9-13
Head relatively large, eye large; snout long, pointed, longer than orbit, tipped with a sharp, narrow scute, anterolateral margin incompletely supported by bone; mouth small, inferior, upper jaw extends to below mid-orbit; teeth in bands in both jaws, bnad in upper jaw shorter than mandibular band; chin barbel short. Body scales coarse, with one to three ridge-like rows of parallel to slightly divergent, overlapping spinules, each recurved, blade-like. Light organ small, length equal to anterior nostril, visible as naked fossa immediately before anus.

Colour:

Overall brownish, mouth, gill covers, gill membranes, gill cavities and fins darker.

Similar species:

Fisheries:

None.

Conservation Status:

Remarks:

Other common names:

Surgeon Grenadier.

Original citation:

Coelorhynchus acanthiger Barnard, 1925, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (9)15(88): 502, off Cape Point, South Africa.

Etymology:

References:

Iwamoto, T. & Williams, A. 1999. Grenadiers (Pisces, Gadiformes) from the continental slope of western and northwestern Australia. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 51(3): 105-243, figs. 1-58.

Iwamoto, T. & Graham, K.J. 2001. Grenadiers (Families Bathygadidae and Macrouridae, Gadiformes, Pisces) of New South Wales, Australia. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 52(21): 407-509, figs. 1-114.