English: Opahs; Moonfish; Sunfish; Kingfish; Redfin ocean pan; Jerusalem haddock.
Name: Ancient Greek lamprós means brilliant or clear.
Genera: 2, Lampris, Megalampris; 6 species; 1 family Lampridae or Lamprididae.
Habitat: pelagic; open ocean; mesopelagic depths of 50 to 500 m.
ZoologyFish: near whole body endothermy, the body is maintained at around 5 °C above the surrounding water.
Size: large, 1 to 2 m; 270 kg.
Color: colorful, deep red-orange to rosy on the belly, white spots covering the flanks.
Form: deep-bodied; deeply keeled, compressed, discoid; large eyes, ringed with golden yellow; body is covered in minute cycloid scales and its silvery, iridescent guanine coating is easily abraded; snout is pointed; mouth small, toothless, terminal; lateral line forms a high arch over the pectoral fins before sweeping down to the caudal peduncle.
Fins: median and paired fins are a bright vermilion; pectoral fins are falcated, curved, inserted more or less horizontally rather than vertically; caudal fins are forked, emarginated, notched; pelvic fins are enlarged, falcated, with about 14 to 17 rays; dorsal fin is single, anterior portion greatly elongated, with about 50–55 rays; anal fin is as high and as long as the shorter portion of the dorsal fin, with corresponding grooves into which they can be depressed,with around 34 to 41 rays.
Behaviour: apparently solitary; school with tuna and other scombrids.
Motion: propel themselves by a lift-based labriform mode of swimming, by flapping their pectoral finss; swimming at constantly high speeds like tuna with their forked caudal fins and depressible median fins
Food: squid, euphausiids, krill, small fish.
Defense: against pelagic sharks, great white sharks, mako sharks.
Reproduction: planktonic opah larvae initially resemble those of certain ribbonfishes, Trachipteridae; slender hatchlings later undergo a marked and rapid transformation from a slender to deep-bodied form; they are believed to have a low population resilience.
TaxonomyLampridae closely resemble Stromateidae.