Caristiidae, the manefishes, are a family of scombriform ray-finned fishes which today includes 19 extant species distributed in four genera. Chalcidichthys malacapterygius and Absalomichthys velifer are extinct species in this family from the Upper Miocene of Southern California.

Caristiidae
Platyberyx opalescens
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Scombriformes
Suborder: Scombroidei
Family: Caristiidae
T. N. Gill & H. M. Smith, 1905[1]
Genera[2]

Biology

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They are deep-sea marine fishes found in the mesopelagic zone [3] that eat siphonophores. An adult manefish is less than 25 cm in length and most of them are entirely black, which helps camouflage them from predators.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Richard van der Laan; William N. Eschmeyer & Ronald Fricke (2014). "Family-group names of Recent fishes". Zootaxa. 3882 (2): 001–230. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3882.1.1. PMID 25543675.
  2. ^ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Family Caristiidae". FishBase. February 2013 version.
  3. ^ "Bizarre deep sea manefish filmed". 2010-02-08. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
  4. ^ "The Family Manefish Revised Description 2019". Manefish.com. 2019-07-03. Retrieved 2019-07-09.