Ceratiidae

Ceratias holboelli, female with dwarf males, preparation in the Museum of Zoology of Saint Petersburg.

The rods anglers ( Ceratiidae ) are a family of deep-sea angler fish ( Ceratioidei ). They live in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Rods anglers have very small, probably non-functional eyes. The mouth is almost vertical. The dorsal fin has four, in rarer cases, five soft rays, the anal fin four. Before the dorsal fin there are three fleshy attachments that were formed from fin rays.

The males live as dwarf males rooted to the females. Ceratias holboelli is about one meter long.

Species

There are four species in two genera:

  • Genus Ceratias Ceratias holboelli Krøyer, 1845.
  • Ceratias tentaculatus (Norman, 1930).
  • Ceratias uranoscopus Murray, 1877.
  • Cryptopsaras couesii Gill, 1883.
Acanthomorpha Anglerfish Fish fin Theodore Gill FishBase
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