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Elsman's Whipnose Anglerfish
Gigantactis elsmani Bertelsen, Pietsch & Lavenberg, 1981
A female Elsman's Whipnose Anglerfish trawled in the Tasman Sea off Sydney, New South Wales, April 1989. View larger image.
Head of the fish in the image above. Note the lure originating on the tip of the snout, the needle-like teeth and the tiny eye (white spot). View larger image.
Lure of a female Elsman's Whipnose Anglerfish. The structure of the esca, at the tip of the lure is an important character used in separating species of Gigantactis. View larger image.
Female Elsman's Whipnose Anglerfish can be recognised by the length and structure of the long whip-like lure attached to the tip of the snout. This species has a relatively elongate body and a long caudal peduncle (glossary) and caudal fin. The needle-like teeth are arranged in approximately five rows.
This species is rarely seen, with very few specimens in research collections. It lives in the deep oceanic waters of most oceans, usually well above the bottom.
The fish in the image is a 310mm standard length (glossary) female (AMS I.28742-001) that was collected by Australian Museum staff on HMAS Cook, April 1989, in the Tasman Sea off Sydney, New South Wales.
The specimen was collected by midwater trawl between the surface and 1800m over a bottom depth of 1700m to 4856m. It is the only specimen of this species known from Australian waters.
The genus Gigantactis contains 21 species, all of which show extreme sexual dimorphism (differences between males and females). The largest females grow to 40cm in length, whereas the largest males only grow to 2.2cm. Males have highly developed sense organs that are presumably used to find females.
A second species of whipnose angler is also recorded from Australian waters. Paxton's Whipnose Angler G.paxtoni Bertelsen & Pietsch, 1983 was named after Australian Museum Research Fellow, Dr John Paxton.
Moore (see further reading) reported in 2002 on the first underwater observations of three whipnose anglerfish (G.vanhoeffeni or G.perlatus). The fish were recorded on video at a depth of approximately 5000m in the North Pacific about halfway between California and Hawaii. All three fish were upside-down with their fins splayed and mouths slightly open. Their lures were "stiffly held in a slight arc out in front of the fish". View images and video at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution website)
Further reading
- Bertelsen, E., & Pietsch, T.W. 1983. The Ceratioid Anglerfishes of Australia. Records of the Australian Museum. 35: 77-99.
- Bertelsen, E., Pietsch, T.W. & Lavenberg, R.J. 1981. Ceratioid anglerfishes of the family Gigantactinidae: morphology, systematics, and distribution. Contribributions in Science. (Los Angeles) 332: 1-74.
- McGrouther, M.A. 2001. First record of Elsman's Whipnose Anglerfish, Gigantactis elsmani (Lophiformes: Gigantactinidae) from Australian waters. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 46(2): 646.
- Moore, J.A. 2002. Upside-Down Swimming Behaviour in a Whipnose Anglerfish (Teleost: Ceratioidei: Gigantactinidae). Copeia (4): 1144-1146.
- Pietsch, T.W. 1999. Gigantactinidae. Whipnose anglerfishes (deepsea anglerfishes) In Carpenter, K.E & Niem, V.H. (eds) FAO species identification guide for Fishery purposes. The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. Vol. 3. FAO. Pp. 2068.
