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Jellynose Fish
Ateleopus sp
A Jellynose Fish at a depth of 414 m, Gifford Guyot, northern Lord Howe Rise, Tasman Sea, November 2007. Photo: R. Przeslawski © Commonwealth of Australia. View larger image.
Above and below: A Jellynose Fish from the Australian Museum Fish Collection. Photo: C. Turner © Australian Museum. View larger image.
Jellynose fishes have a long flabby body, a bulbous snout, and an inferior mouth. They have a short-based dorsal fin and a long-based anal fin that is continuous with the caudal fin.
Jellynose fishes are usually dark brown to black.
The maximum size for fishes in the family is about 2 m in length.
They occur in tropical and temperate marine waters of the outer continental shelf and slope, down to about 600 m.
The taxonomy of the jellynoses needs research. The family contains about twelve species in four genera Ateleopus, Ijimaia, Parateleopus and Guentherus.
Currently, only one species of jellynose is recorded from Australian waters, the Pacific Jellynose Fish, Ateleopus japonicus. The species occurs circumglobally in continental slope depths. In Australia, its documented distribution is from off north-western Western Australia and from off southern Queensland to central New South Wales.
Related links
Further reading
- Hoese, D.F., Bray, D.J., Paxton, J.R. & G.R. Allen. 2006. Fishes. in Beesley, P.L. & A. Wells. (eds) Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Volume 35. ABRS & CSIRO Publishing: Australia. parts 1-3, Pp. 1-2178.
- Nelson, J.S., 1994. Fishes of the World, third edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Pp: 600.
- Olney, J.E. in Paxton, J.R. & W.N. Eschmeyer (Eds). 1994. Encyclopedia of Fishes. Sydney: New South Wales University Press; San Diego: Academic Press [1995]. Pp. 240.
- Paxton, J.R., D.F. Hoese, G.R. Allen & J.E. Hanley. 1989. Zoological Catalogue of Australia Vol.7 Pisces Petromyzontidae to Carangidae. Canberra: Australian Biological Resources Survey. Pp. i-xii, 1-665.
