The Salangidæ, or Icefishes.—Still more feeble and insignificant are the species of Salangidæ, icefishes, or Chinese whitebait, which may be described as Salmonidæ reduced to the lowest terms. The body is long and slender, perfectly translucent, almost naked, and with the skeleton scarcely ossified. The fins are like those of the salmon, the head is depressed, the jaws long and broad, somewhat like the bill of a duck, and within there are a few disproportionately strong canine teeth, those of the lower jaw somewhat piercing the upper. The alimentary canal is straight for its whole length, without pyloric cæca. These little fishes, two to five inches long, live in the sea in enormous numbers and ascend the rivers of eastern Asia for the purpose of spawning. It is thought by some that they are annual fishes, all dying in the fall after reproduction, the species living through the winter only within its eggs. But this is only suspected, not proved, and the species will repay the careful study which some of the excellent naturalists of Japan are sure before long to give to it. The species of Salanx are known as whitebait, in Japan as Shiro-uwo, which means exactly the same thing. They are also sometimes called icefish (Hingio), which, being used for no other fish, may be adopted as a group name for Salanx.
The species are Salanx chinensis from Canton, Salanx hyalo cranius from Korea and northern China, Salanx microdon from northern Japan, and Salanx ariakensis from the southern island of Kiusiu. The Japanese fishes are species still smaller and feebler than their relatives from the mainland.
The Haplochitonidæ.—The Haplochitonidæ are trout-like fishes of the south temperate zone, differing from the Salmonidæ mainly in the extension of the premaxillary until, as in the perch-like fishes, it forms the outer border of the upper jaw. The adipose fin is present as in all the salmon and smelt. Haplochiton of Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands is naked, while in Prototroctes of Australia and New Zealand the body, as in all salmon, trout, and smelt, is covered with scales. Prototroctes maræna is the yarra herring of Australia. The closely related family of Galaxiidæ, also Australian, but lacking the adipose fin, is mentioned in a later chapter.
Fig. 86.—Icefish, Salanx hyalocranius Abbott. Family Salangidæ. Tientsin, China.
Stomiatidæ.—The Stomiatidæ, with elongate bodies, have the mouth enormous, with fang-like teeth, usually barbed. Of the several species Stomias ferox is best known. According to Dr. Boulenger, these fishes are true Isospondyli.
Fig. 87.—Stomias ferox Reinhardt. Banquereau.
Astronesthidæ is another small group of small fishes naked and black, with long canines, found in the deep sea.
The Malacosteidæ is a related group with extremely distensible mouth, the species capable of swallowing fishes much larger than themselves.