English: Tube-eye; Thread-tail,
Genus: 1; 1 species: Stylephorus chordatus, 1 family Stylephoridae.
Region: worldwide.
Habitat: deep subtropical and tropical waters.
ZoologyFish; deep-sea fish; extremely elongated; living at depths at daytime, more superficial at night; eyes are tubular in shape, resembling a pair of binoculars; it has a tubular mouth through which it sucks seawater by enlarging its oral cavity to about 40 times its original size. It then expels the water through the gills, leaving behind the copepods on which it feeds.
Size: 28 cm long, tail fin rays triple its length to about 90 cm.
Food: plankton.
TaxonomyStylephoriformes has been historically placed amongst
Lampriformes. Study involving mitochondrial and nuclear DNA suggested Stylephorus is instead a close parent of the
Gadiformes.