RARE OARFISH

[wiredantz]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/15/us/cal...html?hpt=hp_c3


What do we know about this species? Jim?






Pretty Majestic looking

[ful-rac]

I think Jim has one of those all dried up that he uses for a belt....

[jruiz]

Originally Posted by ful-rac

I think Jim has one of those all dried up that he uses for a belt....

lol

[StinkyMatt]

Well, let me tell you guys....

Back in the 30s when I was a skipper on the Royal Queens private tuna vessel named the Big Kahuna.....

Well, we used to use 25/0 hooks to bait these creatures of the deep. We used a sheep brain dipped in a special sauce which I invented and regularly pulled out specimen between 180000 and 4500000000 grams.


Further research of the day center in my garage indicates that I actually was responsible for the identification of this sea monster. It was originally given the name original us spectaculus, however that was in error. The correct name should have been majorus bullisgitingus.


I should have some Polaroids of me with a 4.5 inch freeze dried monster that was donated to the Royal Aquatic Museum.


Ohhhhh, I could go on forever but I like to keep things short.


What? Is that the door bell? Another super model at the door......

Got to go.

[driftwood]

Originally Posted by StinkyMatt

Well, let me tell you guys....

Back in the 30s when I was a skipper on the Royal Queens private tuna vessel named the Big Kahuna.....

Well, we used to use 25/0 hooks to bait these creatures of the deep. We used a sheep brain dipped in a special sauce which I invented and regularly pulled out specimen between 180000 and 4500000000 grams.


Further research of the day center in my garage indicates that I actually was responsible for the identification of this sea monster. It was originally given the name original us spectaculus, however that was in error. The correct name should have been majorus bullisgitingus.


I should have some Polaroids of me with a 4.5 inch freeze dried monster that was donated to the Royal Aquatic Museum.


Ohhhhh, I could go on forever but I lie to keep things short.


What? Is that the door bell? Another super model at the door......

Got to go.

you for got to sign your post...Jim Charles Darwin Day.

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by StinkyMatt

Well, let me tell you guys.... Further research of the day center in my garage indicates that I actually was responsible for the identification of this sea monster. What? Is that the door bell? Another super model at the door. Got to go.

OH my!!!! Ha Ha Ha..... That's pretty damn funny. What can I say life is pretty Awesome if you get out there and live a little

[Fiskadoro]

b

Originally Posted by wiredantz

What do we know about this species? Jim?

Ha Ha ha ...... I don't know much about them, and never seen one. I know they are around here but deep. Great video by the way. I once saw one of it's relatives a Ribbonfish while at anchor at Catalina, and it swam the same way. Cutlasfish if you know what they are can swim like that as well.

So since almost nothing is known about them I can only give you my theories on how they live and even hunt, because believe it or not I'd say that fish is a hunter.

I like to think of animals in mechanical terms. So something as weird as that creature is obviously adapted to do something specific. So the question is what is it adapted to do?

I'd say it's an open water ambush predator that feeds on things getting washed down to it by the current, that holds in the current then uses both it's vision and ability to pick up vibration to pick off small fish, crustaceans and invertebrates that are washed down to it.

The long body is a cool adaption and I'd say it does two things.

The first you can see in the video.

It hangs like a knife or a like a thin bladed rudder in the water which reduces drag. It's probably has a very short intestinal cavity so the swim bladder keeps it head up while the rest of the body acts like a weighted keel. It's thin and it holds it body rigidly still. The only movement is the dorsal which pushes it forward enough to hold in the current using the same principles of a Hobbie drive in that as it moves the dorsal side to side the flex in the fin creates force which pushes it forward. It's like sculling a fixed keel sailboat forward with just it's rudder. Simply put this is a super efficient way for a fish that large to hold itself in one place in a large moving ocean current.

Like your average fillet knife from the side it's easy to see, but turn it with the edge towards you and it's not very visible. So say you were a fish or shrimp getting washed down current directly towards it. There wouldn't be that much to see and since it's metallic silver what you could see would reflect the color of the water around it so it would blend in, and not be very visible at all.

I've seen whole schools of cutlasfish in the Gulf swimming and hunting like that, and I've watched them feed. Cutlasfish are different with larger mouths and teeth but their body structure is very similar.



Note the big eyes, similar shape, and similar coloration.

They hang vertical using only their dorsal to hold position in the water but they can rapidly move up or down when they use their whole body to move.

The way they hunt is they sit still until something get's close then they will suddenly shoot up about half their body length like a striking snake to grab passing fish or shrimp. They will take spoons or small lures, and once hooked actual fight pretty hard for their size by trying to swim backwards directly away from you. We used to fish for them all the time as they are excellent Kingfish bait.

I imagine this fish feeds the same way. it's an open water ambush predator that feeds on things getting washed down by the current. It has large eyes so when there is light it has good vision for hunting or locating prey that's washing down to it. The also have several very long almost hairlike fins that I imagine they use to pick up vibrations in the water so they can hunt in total darkness as well.

All and all I'd say it's a pretty weird but actually a pretty amazing adaption.

Now your not going to find any of that in a peer reviewed journal but that's how I'd say that fish survives.

Speaking of things no-one knows I think that fish does have some kind of predator that attacks them. In every picture of seen the tail section looks like it's been chewed off at the end. I used to think that it was only the case for dead ones since most of the pictures I've seen are of ones that died then floated to shore. That said if you look at the video those oar fish are missing pretty good portions of thier tail as well.

Here's a pic of one of it's closest relatives a ribbonfish that was photographed at Catalina, that still has it's tail. I imagine the Oarfish has a similar tail structure when whole.



Pretty similar fish. Notice how it's holding in the current and though it's dorsal is pushing it forward it's long fins are trailing back almost like antenna, which to me suggest that it uses not for mobility, but to pick up vibration in the water for locating danger or prey..

Cool fish!!!! Weird but pretty amazing in my book.

[Fiskadoro]

You might find this interesting. There's a couple of fish we caught in the Gulf the Atlantic moonfish, and the Lookdown that are bright chrome with a very narrow profile. Your oarfish post got me thinking about them and how they probably use their thinness and reflective skin to sneak up on other fish. I looked around and found some interesting pics.

Moonfish:


Lookdown:



Juvenalle Lookdown.



Another Species of ribbonfish with a similar head.

[wiredantz]

I didn't realize that their tail was missing. Very observant. I think they have the tail bent the other way.

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by wiredantz

I didn't realize that their tail was missing. Very observant. I think they have the tail bent the other way.

Could be. I think they may just have a pointed tail like a cutlassfish but something likes to chew on them, and most of them appear to be missing a portion of their tail.

I was thinking more about the stealth hunter thing, and started looking around for info on it.

Here's a great video where you can clearly see how hard they are to see when really alive and behaving normally in the water.




That one appears to be pretty big, the eye is as large as the divers fist, but it's so hard to see that you can't even tell how far it is from the camera until the diver puts his arm behind it a 49 seconds.

I also find it interesting that what you can see doesn't look that much like a fish. With it's vertical orientation and the movement of the undulating dorsal in almost looks like a large invertebrate like a more of jellyfish then a fish. I imagine to it's prey: small fish, shrimp etc.. a large jellyfish that appears to be transparent would seem a lot less threatening that a 40ft swimming eel-like fish.

It would be cool to see how they move when they feed or feel threatened. I'd say it's in stealth mode in the vid but when it wants to it could swim much faster forward like a real fish and that's probably how it catches it's prey.

[Aaron&Julie]

Cool videos and a neat find by the scuba diver who found the recent one.

Somebody in her video needs to learn how to count. It didn't take like 25 people to pick it up. I count 15 people with a hand or hands on the fish, one a little girl. Some are justing basically touching it. Still, it's pretty damn big.