148 



COASTAL FISH 



The spike-backed Notacanthus has free dorsal-fin spikes like a stickleback. 



metres. Whereas flatfishes usually have a small mouth capable of catching 

 only small animals, especially bottom-dwelling animals, this turbot has 

 an immense gape with long, movable teeth. It has adapted itself to catch- 

 ing fish and, like many deep-sea fish, can swallow a disproportionately 

 large prey. It is well known from earlier Danish deep-sea expeditions, 

 which showed it to have very large pelagic larvae. 



We obtained numerous other strange deep-sea fishes in these regions: 

 the eel-like "spiny eel" (Notacanthus), which has free spikes on the dorsal 

 fins like a stickleback, and the related HalosauridcB taken at 1,600 me- 

 tres; the deep-sea salmonoid Argentina sphyrcena, also known from Nor- 

 thern European seas, which was caught off Natal; and many others. 



Let us conclude with a couple of members of the angler-fish order 

 (Pediculata), relatives of our common angler. Off Natal we caught 73 

 specimens of the rather clumsy but beautiful scarlet-coloured Chaunax 

 pictus, which burrows into the bottom and lures its prey by means of 

 its single, mobile fin barb placed on the snout. And, to form a final de- 

 corative vignette, we have the little, spinous rattle-fishes (Dibranchus, 

 Halieuta^a), which can be dried without loss of shape. They get their 

 name from the Oriental custom of scooping out the insides and filling 

 them with pebbles to make babies' rattles. 



Halosaurus, a rarely seen fish from the deeper parts of the continental slope. 



