The flaccid lanternfish (''Metelectrona'' ''ventralis)'' is a species of
oceanodromous
Fish migration is animal migration, mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few ...
lanternfish
Lanternfishes (or myctophids, from the Greek μυκτήρ ''myktḗr'', "nose" and ''ophis'', "serpent") are small mesopelagic fish of the large family Myctophidae. One of two families in the order Myctophiformes, the Myctophidae are represente ...
that has a lifespan of up to two years.
It has been found in stomachs of ''
Champsocephalus gunnari
The mackerel icefish (''Champsocephalus gunnari'') is a benthopelagic species of fish found in the Southern Ocean and the southernmost waters of the Atlantic Ocean. They are mainly to be found near Heard and McDonald Islands, Îles Kerguelen and ...
'' and ''
Dissostichus eleginoides
The Patagonian toothfish (''Dissostichus eleginoides'') is a species of Nototheniidae, notothen found in cold waters () between depths of in the southern Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pacific, and Indian Ocean, Indian Oceans and South ...
''.
Distribution/habitat
It is a
bathypelagic
The bathypelagic zone or bathyal zone (from Greek βαθύς (bathýs), deep) is the part of the open ocean that extends from a depth of below the ocean surface. It lies between the mesopelagic above, and the abyssopelagic below. The bathypelagic ...
species, living in waters from deep, and may rise to the surface at at night.
Description
It reaches a length of up to , and has 13 to 15 dorsal soft rays, and 20 to 22 anal soft rays.
References
Taxa named by Vladimir Eduardovich Becker
Fish described in 1963
Myctophidae
{{Myctophiformes-stub