The Sabertooth Fish

selim12 February 8, 2024 0 Comments

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Sabertooth or sabretooth fish are small, fierce-looking deep-sea aulopiform fish from the family Evermannellidae.

Table of Contents

Habitat:

They are found in tropical to subtropical waters of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. They are spotted in the mesopelagic zone from 400 meters to up to 1000 meters.

Appearance Of The Sabertooth Fish:

Named after their large size teeth like those of saber-toothed cats made to ambush and devour prey at lightning speed. With elongated bodies and a few inches in length, they lack normal scales. Their color is primarily black. They have large heads with wide mouths full of platine teeth with some short ones. The tongue is toothless.

Their eyes range from small to large with tubular structures pointing upwards helping the fish to extend their vision in specific directions and in darkness. The anal fin (26–37 rays) is the largest of the fins. All fins are spineless. They don’t have swim bladders. They have between 44 and 54 vertebrae.

Diet Of The Sabretooth Fish:

Their distensible stomach allows them to eat prey larger than themselves from small fish, squids, and crustaceans.

Behavior And Lifespan:

This fish has an incredible adaptation called the optical fold which is found in the lateral sides of the eyes allowing them to extend their vision by altering the angle of the light from the lateral and ventral sides to better enter the eye. They use their upward-pointing eyes to hunt the silhouette of squid and other fish only seeing their shadow above them. They are solitary creatures.They can live from 10 to 15 years.

Reproduction And Lifecycle:

They are nonguarding pelagic spawners reproducing through external fertilization. The spawning is throughout the year, larvae sabretooth fish have long snouts roaming shallower depths than adults (50 to 100 meters) descending to deeper water with age.