A Guide to the Study of Fishes, Volume 2 (of 2)

by David Starr Jordan

The Swallowers: Chiasmodontidæ.—The family of swallowers Chiasmodontidæ, is made up of a few deep-sea fishes of soft flesh and feeble spines, the opercular apparatus much reduced. The ventrals are post-thoracic, the rays I, 5, facts which point to some affinity with the Opisthognathidæ, although Boulenger places these fishes among the Percesoces. Chiasmodon niger, the black swallower of the mid-Atlantic, has exceedingly long teeth and the whole body so distensible that it can swallow fishes of many times its own size. According to Gill:

Fig. 300.—Black Swallower, Chiasmodon niger Johnson, containing a fish larger than itself. Le Have Bank.

"It espies a fish many times larger than itself, but which, nevertheless, may be managed; it darts upon it, seizes it by the tail and gradually climbs over it with its jaws, first using one and then the other; as the captive is taken in the stomach and integuments stretch out, and at last the entire fish is passed through the mouth and into the stomach, and the distended belly appears as a great bag, projecting out far backwards and forwards, over which is the swallower with the ventrals dislocated and far away from their normal place. The walls of the stomach and belly have been so stretched that they are transparent, and the species of the fish can be discerned within. But such rapacity is more than the captor itself can stand. At length decomposition sets in, the swallower is forced belly upwards, and the imprisoned gas, as in a balloon, takes it upwards from the depths to the surface of the ocean, and there, perchance, it may be found and picked up, to be taken home for a wonder, as it is really. Thus have at least three specimens found their way into museums—one being in the United States National Museum—and in each the fish in the stomach has been about twice as long, and stouter in proportion, than the swallower—six to twelve times bulkier! Its true habitat seems to be at a depth of about 1,500 fathoms."

Allied to this family is the little group of Champsodontidæ of Japan and the East Indies. Champsodon vorax looks like a young Uranoscopus. The body is covered with numerous lateral lines and cross-lines.

The Malacanthidæ.—The Malacanthidæ are elongate fishes, rather handsomely colored, with a strong canine on the premaxillary behind. Malacanthus plumieri, the matajuelo blanco, a slender fish of a creamy-brown color, is common in the West Indies. Other species are found in Polynesia, the most notable being Malacanthus (or Oceanops) lativittatus, a large fish of a brilliant sky-blue, with a jet-black lateral band. In Samoa this species is called gatasami, the "eye of the sea."

The Blanquillos: Latilidæ.—The Latilidæ, or blanquillos, have also an enlarged posterior canine, but the body is deeper and the flesh more firm. The species reach a considerable size and are valued as food. Lopholotilus chamæleonticeps is the famous tilefish dredged in the depths under the Gulf Stream. It is a fish of remarkable beauty, red and golden. This species, Professor Gill writes, "was unknown until 1879, when specimens were brought by fishermen to Boston from a previously unexplored bank about eighty miles southeast of No Man's Land, Mass. In the fall of 1880 it was found to be extremely abundant everywhere off the coast of southern New England at a depth of from seventy-five to two hundred and fifty fathoms. The form of the species is more compressed, and higher, than in most of the family, and what especially distinguishes it is the development of a compressed, 'fleshy, fin-like appendage over the back part of the head and nape, reminding one of the adipose fin of the salmonids and catfishes.' It is especially notable, too, for the brilliancy of its colors, as well as for its size, being by far larger than any other member of its family. A weight of fifty pounds or more is, or rather, one might say, was frequently attained by it, although such was very far above the average, that being little over ten pounds. In the reach of water referred to, it could once be found abundantly at any time, and caught by hook and line. After a severe gale in March, 1882, millions of tilefish could be seen, or calculated for, on the surface of the water for a distance of about three hundred miles from north to south, and fifty miles from east to west. It has been calculated by Capt. Collins that as many as one thousand four hundred and thirty-eight millions were scattered over the surface. This would have allowed about two hundred and twenty-eight pounds to every man, woman and child of the fifty million inhabitants of the United States! On trying at their former habitat the next fall, as well as all successive years to the present time, not a single specimen could be found where formerly it was so numerous. We have thus a case of a catastrophe which, as far as has been observed, caused complete annihilation of an abundant animal in a very limited period. Whether the grounds it formerly held will be reoccupied subsequently by the progeny of a protected colony remains to be seen, but it is scarcely probable that the entire species has been exterminated." It is now certain that the species is not extinct.

Caulolatilus princeps is the blanquillo or "whitefish" of southern California, a large handsome fish formed like a dolphin, of purplish, olivaceous color and excellent flesh. Other species of Caulolatilus are found in the West Indies. Latilus japonicus is the amadai or sweet perch of Japan, an excellent food-fish of a bright crimson color.

The Pinguipedidæ of Chile resemble the Latilidæ, having also the enlarged premaxillary tooth. The ventrals are, however, thickened and placed farther forward.

The Bandfishes: Cepolidæ.—The small family of Cepolidæ, or bandfishes, resemble the Latilidæ somewhat and are probably related to them. The head is normally formed, the ventral fins are thoracic, with a spine and five rays, but the body is drawn out into a long eel-like form, the many-rayed dorsal and anal fins meeting around the tail. The few species are crimson in color with small scales. They are used as food, but the flesh is dry and the bones are stiff and numerous. Cepola tænia is common in the Mediterranean, and Acanthocepola krusensterni abounds in the bays of southern Japan.