A STRANGE FISH

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 64, 9 December 1926, Page 10

A STRANGE FISH

FOUND NEAR WELLINGTON. A strange fish found on the beach by Messrs.. Watson Bros., of Para paraumu, has been brought to the D<> minion Museum by Professor Kilk, and proves to lie of the genus Trachipterus, species trachypterus. It is an extraordinary looking fish. Although measurin’ Ift. 6in. in length, and four or five inches in width, it averages only Jin. in thickness, and at the. tail is much thinner than that. It is richly silvered, the thick coating of what looks like silver paint, which comes off upon the fingers if handled, consisting ot thousands of crystalline prisms. It seems established that this fish, which is a true ribbon fish, its order having six representatives in New Zealand, must live at a great ocean depth, perhaps below the 160 fathoms hne, but there is nothing to show that if lives on the ocean bed. It may rather be one of those fishes which live between the top and bottom. It has a protractible mouth, which extends more than an inch like a bellows, perhaps to enable it to grasp its prey. While fresh, the brilliant silver covering is relieved by a reddish lateral, stripe, and the tail and fins are a vivid scarlet. Its exceedingly delicate construction may be due to the pressures it has to sustain at the depth it lives. Black spots the size of a florin diversify the back. So thin is the fish that the bones running to its back give it a delicately corrugated appearance.