Beryciformes
English: Alfonsinos, Whalefishes, Pricklefishes.
Synonyms: Stephanoberyciformes; Cetomimiformes.
Genera: 30; 161 species; 7 families.
Members: alfonsinos, squirrelfishes, flashlight fishes, fangtooth fishes, spinyfins, pineconefishes, redfishes, roughies, and slimeheads.
Habitat: deepwater, down to 2000 m; marine; tropical to temperate; on the continental shelf and continental slope; some species move closer to the surface at night, others live entirely in shallow water and are nocturnal, hiding in rock crevices and caves during the day; some species are mesopelagic and bathypelagic.
Use: some are caught commercially.
Introduction
Beryciformes are a poorly-understood order of carnivorous ray-finned fishes.
Zoology
Fish; carnivorous; nocturnal; some species have bioluminescent bacteria contained in pockets of skin or in light organs near the eyes.
Size: 8 to 61 cm.
Form: deep and mildly compressed; large eyes.
Color: red to yellow, brown to black.
Food: carnivorous; small fish, invertebrates.
Families
Berycoidei
Holocentrifromes
• Melamphaidae
• Berycidae
Stephanoberycoidei
• Cetomimidae
• Rondeletiidae
• Barbourisiidae
• Stephanoberycidae
• Gibberichthyidae
• Hispidoberycidae