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Argyropelecus aculeatus Valenciennes, 1850

Lovely hatchetfish
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Argyropelecus aculeatus   AquaMaps   Data sources: GBIF OBIS
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Image of Argyropelecus aculeatus (Lovely hatchetfish)
Argyropelecus aculeatus
Picture by Orlov, A.

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Stomiiformes (Lightfishes and dragonfishes) > Sternoptychidae (Marine hatchetfishes) > Sternoptychinae
Etymology: Argyropelecus: Greek, argyros = silvered, silver + Greek, pelekys = axe (Ref. 45335).
More on author: Valenciennes.

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Marine; bathypelagic; depth range 100 - 2056 m (Ref. 27311). Deep-water; 40°N - 35°S, 180°W - 180°E

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Eastern Atlantic: Portugal to Senegal; reported from Namibia (Ref. 27121). Western Atlantic: 40°N-10°N and 15°S-35°S; specimens taken off the Guianas (Ref. 13608). Northwest Atlantic: Canada (Ref. 5951). Indian Ocean: 0°-35°S. Western Pacific: 35°N-35°S. Southeast Pacific: 30°S-35°S. Recently reported in Aden Gulf, Arabian Sea (Ref. 85285).

Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 8.3 cm SL male/unsexed; (Ref. 57911); max. published weight: 20.90 g (Ref. 124532)

Short description Identification keys | Morphology | Morphometrics

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Dorsal soft rays (total): 9; Anal spines: 0; Anal soft rays: 12. Deep body, lower opercular spine straight downward and curved outward. Upper opercular spine short, pointing outward (Ref. 37473).

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

An oceanic and mesopelagic species concentrated at 300-600 m by day and 100-300 by night (Refs. 4462, 4739). A selective dusk-time feeder mainly on conchoecid ostracods, to lesser extent on copepods, decapod larvae, fish larvae, etc (Ref. 4739). Adult photophore developing at about 15 mm SL (Ref. 4739). Also Ref. 58302.

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Weitzman, S.H., 1986. Sternoptychidae. p. 253-259. In M.M. Smith and P.C. Heemstra (eds.) Smiths' sea fishes. Springer-Verlag, Berlin. (Ref. 4054)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435: Version 2024-1)

  Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 15 July 2014

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless





Human uses

Fisheries: of no interest
FAO - Publication: search | FishSource |

More information

Trophic ecology
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Internet sources

AFORO (otoliths) | Aquatic Commons | BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes: genus, species | DiscoverLife | ECOTOX | FAO - Publication: search | Faunafri | Fishipedia | Fishtrace | GenBank: genome, nucleotide | GloBI | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | MitoFish | National databases | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | Socotra Atlas | Tree of Life | Wikipedia: Go, Search | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoobank | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Preferred temperature (Ref. 123201): 4.9 - 13.7, mean 8 °C (based on 1129 cells).
Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804):  PD50 = 0.5078   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.02291 (0.01297 - 0.04045), b=2.99 (2.84 - 3.14), in cm total length, based on LWR estimates for this species & Genus-body shape (Ref. 93245).
Trophic level (Ref. 69278):  3.7   ±0.2 se; based on diet studies.
Resilience (Ref. 120179):  High, minimum population doubling time less than 15 months (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  Low vulnerability (10 of 100).