Longnose Lancetfish, Alepisaurus ferox Lowe 1833
A Longnose Lancetfish, Alepisaurus ferox, photographed near Mahler Seamount, Musicians Seamounts, Central Pacific, September 2017. Source: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Deep-Sea Symphony: Exploring the Musicians Seamounts. License: CC by Attribution
The large fast-swimming voracious predator with a slender iridescent silvery to bronze body, a high, sail-like dorsal fin and enormous fangs in the mouth.
Video of a Longnose Lancetfish with a plastic bottle and other trash in its stomach.
A Longnose lancetfish speared in Carmel Bay, California.
Footage of a Longnose Lancetfish in Izu Ocean Park, Japan.
Longnose Lancetfish, Alepisaurus ferox Lowe 1833
More Info
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Distribution |
Widespread in tropical and subtropical waters of all oceans, and found off all Australian States except the Northern Territory. Lancetfishes are pelagic in the open ocean, rarely entering coastal waters. |
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Features |
Dorsal fin 30-45; Anal fin 13-18; Pectoral fin 14-15; pelvic fin 8-10; Vertebrae 47-52; Branchiostegal rays 7-8. Body long and slender, depth 10 times or more in SL, with a dark midlateral keel along the rear of the body. Snout long, mouth large, with small teeth in jaws and several larger fang-like canines on lower jaw, and a row of moderate canines and two erect fangs on palatines. Dorsal fin high, sail-like, originating over gill opening, anterior rays low, followed by several elongate rays with free tips; adipose fin present. Scales absent. |
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Size |
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Colour |
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Feeding |
A voracious opportunistic predator that feeds on a range of prey including fishes, crustaceans and cephalopods. The species has appears to store food in its stomach for extended periods with minimal digestion allowing for detailed prey identification. |
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Biology |
Lancetfishes are synchronous hermaphrodites meaning that they have both functional male and female reproductive tissue. The species is oviparous (egg laying) with planktonic larvae. |
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Fisheries |
Although not targeted, the Longnose Lancetfish is taken as bycatch in tuna longline fisheries. |
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Etymology |
The specific name is from the Latin ferox (= fierce, ferocious), in reference to the “wide gape, and long formidable teeth” of this species. |
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Species Citation |
Alepisaurus ferox Lowe, 1833, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1: 104. Type locality: Madeira. |
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Author |
Bray, D.J. 2025 |
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Resources |
Longnose Lancetfish, Alepisaurus ferox Lowe 1833
References
Ambrose, D.A. 1996. Alepisauridae: lancetfishes, pp. 379-381 in Moser, H.G. (ed.) The early stages of fishes in the California Current region. CalCOFI Atlas 33, Allen Press, Lawrence, Kansas.
Choy, C.A., Portner, E., Iwane, M., Drazen, J.C. 2013. Diets of five important predatory mesopelagic fishes of the central North Pacific. Marine Ecology Progress Series 492: 169–184. http://dx.doi.org/10.3354/meps10518
Francis, M.P. 1981. Meristic and morphometric variation in the lancet fish Alepisaurus, with notes on the distribution of A. ferox and A. brevirostris. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 8(3): 403-408.
Glover, C.J.M. 1994. Families Paralepididae, Alepisauridae. pp. 271-275 figs 242-245 in Gomon, M.F., Glover, C.J.M. & Kuiter, R.H. (eds). The Fishes of Australia's South Coast. Adelaide : State Printer 992 pp. 810 figs.
Hutchins, J.B. & Swainston, R. 1986. Sea Fishes of Southern Australia. Complete field guide for anglers and divers. Perth : Swainston Publishing 180 pp.
Kubota, T. & Uyeno, T. 1970. Food habits of lancetfish Alepisaurus ferox (order Myctophiformes) in Suruga Bay, Japan. Japanese Journal of Ichthyology 17: 22-28.
Jantz, L.A., Morishige, C.L., Bruland, G.L., Lepczyk, C.L. 2013. Ingestion of plastic marine debris by longnose lancetfish (Alepisaurus ferox) in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine Pollution Bulletin 69(1–2): 97-104, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2013.01.019
Lowe, R.T. 1833. A description of Alepisaurus, a new genus of fishes. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1: 104. See ref at BHL
Matarese, A.C., A.W. Kendall, D.M. Blood & M.V. Vinter. 1989. Laboratory guide to early life history stages of Northeast Pacific fishes. NOAA Tech. Rep. NMFS 80:1-652.
Moteki, M., Fujita, K. & Kohno, H. 1993. Stomach contents of longnose lancetfish, Alepisaurus ferox, in Hawaiian and central equatorial Pacific waters. J. Tokyo Univ. of Fish. 80(1): 121-137.
Orlov, A.M. & V.A. Ul'chenko. 2002. A hypothesis to explain onshore records of long-nose lancetfish Alepisaurus ferox (Alepisauridae, Teleostei) in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine and Freshwater Research 53: 303-306.
Paxton, J.R. 2010. Alepisaurus ferox. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 03 February 2014.
Portner, E.J., Mowatt-Larssen, T., Carretero, A.C., Contreras, E.A., et al. 2023. Harnessing a mesopelagic predator as a biological sampler reveals taxonomic and vertical resource partitioning among three poorly known deep-sea fishes. Scientific Reports 13(1):16078. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41298-9
Portner, E., Polovina, J. & Choy, A. 2017. Patterns in micronekton diversity across the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre observed from the diet of longnose lancetfish (Alepisaurus ferox). Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers 125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2017.04.013
Post, A. 1984. Alepisauridae. pp. 494-495 in Whitehead, P.J.P., Bauchot, M.-L., Hureau, J.-C., Nielsen, J. & Tortonese, E. (eds). Fishes of the north-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. UNESCO, Paris. Vol. 1.
Potier, M., Marsac, F., Cherel, Y., Lucas, V., Sabatié, R., Maury, O. & Ménard, F. 2007. Forage fauna in the diet of three large pelagic fishes (lancetfish, swordfish and yellowfin tuna) in the western equatorial Indian Ocean. Fisheries Research 83: 60-72, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fishres.2006.08.020
Potier, M., Menard, F., Cherel, Y., Lorrain, A., Sabatie, R., Marsac, F. 2007. Role of pelagic crustaceans in the diet of the longnose lancetfish Alepisaurus ferox in the Seychelles waters. African Journal of Marine Science 29: 113-122,
Romanov, E.V. & Zamorov, V.V. 2007. Regional feeding patterns of the Longnose Lancetfish (Alepisaurus ferox Lowe, 1833) of the Western Indian Ocean. Western Indian Ocean J. Mar. Sci. 6(1): 37-56.
Smith, C.L. & Atz, E.H. 1973. Hermaphroditism in the mesopelagic fishes Osmosudis lowei and Alepisaurus ferox. Copeia 1973: 41-44.
Wassersug, R.J. & Johnson, R.K. 1976. A remarkable pyloric caecum in the evermannellid genus Coccorella with notes on gut structure and function in alepisauroid fishes (Pisces, Myctophiformes). Journal of Zoology 179: 273-289. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1976.tb02296.x
