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Sigmops elongatus

No common name
Collection Details

Specimens

Photos

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Records

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes) Stomiiformes Gonostomatidae (Bristlemouths) Sigmops Sigmops elongatus

Description

This species account was compiled from FishBase (Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2025. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version 04/2025.) and processed using AI-assisted text extraction. It may contain errors in spelling, punctuation, or formatting. When citing, please reference the original source rather than this page. Learn more about our species accounts.

Characters

Body shape: elongated. Black in color, slightly silvery laterally; fins dusky and with small black spots; distal portion of pectorals and pelvic fins colorless (Ref. 3991). Dorsal adipose fin present. Branchiostegal rays: 12-13 (Ref. 35800).

Distribution

Worldwide. Mediterranean (Ref. 85016). Eastern Atlantic: scattered records from Iceland (Ref. 4769) south to Cape Verde and Gulf of Guinea; also between 30°S-35°S. Western Atlantic: Gulf of Mexico (Ref. 27768). North Atlantic: 65°-30°N. Indo-Pacific: in tropical and subtropical waters. Eastern Pacific: found in California and Baja California (Ref. 35800), and Chile (Ref. 9068). Indian Ocean, tropical and subtropical waters (Ref. 47377). South China Sea and East China Sea (Ref.74511).

Habitat Associations

Marine. bathypelagic. depth range 25-4740 m.

Biology

Meso- to bathypelagic (Ref. 58302). Occur between 100-200 m and 500-800 m at night and 25-600 m and 1,250-1,500 m during the day (Ref. 4463). Feed on crustaceans and small fishes (Ref. 4769). Photophores develop in fishes over 6-22 mm SL (Ref. 4769). Protandric hermaphrodite, oviparous with planktonic eggs and larvae (Ref. 35800). Minimum depth from Ref. 4463.
Max length: 27.5 cm TL.
Reproductive mode: protandry; fertilization: external; nonguarders. Oviparous (Ref. 35800).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2013-05-16. Resilience: Medium (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).

Commercial or Environmental Importance

Fisheries: of no interest.

References

Schaefer, S., R.K. Johnson and J. Badcock (1986) Gonostomatidae. p. 247-253. In M.M. Smith and P.C. Heemstra (eds.) Smiths' sea fishes. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Quéro, J.-C., J.C. Njock and M.M. de la Hoz (1990) Gonostomatidae. p. 283-292. In J.C. Quero, J.C. Hureau, C. Karrer, A. Post and L. Saldanha (eds.) Check-list of the fishes of the eastern tropical Atlantic (CLOFETA). JNICT, Lisbon; SEI, Paris; and UNESCO, Paris. Vol. 1.
Badcock, J. (1984) Gonostomatidae. p. 284-301. In P.J.P. Whitehead, M.-L. Bauchot, J.-C. Hureau, J. Nielsen and E. Tortonese (eds.) Fishes of the north-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. volume 1. UNESCO, Paris.
Watson, W. (1996) Gonostomatidae: bristlemouths. p. 247-267. In H.G. Moser (ed.) The early stages of fishes in the California Current Region. California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) Atlas No. 33. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 1505 p.
Bogutskaya, N.G. (2007) Preliminary assignment of coordinates to type localities in the Catalog of Fishes. Unpublished dbf file.

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