Gigantactis gargantua Bertelsen, Pietsch & Lavenberg, 1981
photo by Ho, H.-C.

Family:  Gigantactinidae (Whipnose anglers)
Max. size:  41 cm TL (male/unsexed)
Environment:  bathypelagic; marine; depth range 500 - 1535 m
Distribution:  Indo Pacific Ocean.
Diagnosis:  Dorsal soft rays (total): 5-7; Anal soft rays: 6-6. Metamorphosed females distinguished by the following characteristics: length of illicium 134-354% SL; four or five pairs of large, distal escal filaments; 30-50 proximal filaments centered on an anterior margin of escal bulb; absence of escal papillae; relatively short dentary teeth (longest 2.3% SL), arranged posteriorly on four longitudinal series; second and seventh caudal fin rays extremely long (30-47 and 54-76% SL respectively); males unknown (Ref. 86949).
Biology: 
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC); Date assessed: 11 October 2018 Ref. (130435)
Threat to humans:  harmless


Source and more info: www.fishbase.org. For personal, classroom, and other internal use only. Not for publication.