RARE OARFISH

[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.