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These Grenadiers or rattails (less commonly whiptails) are generally large, brown to black gadiform marine fish of the family Macrouridae. Found at great depths from the Arctic to Antarctic, members of this family are among the most abundant of the deep-sea fishes.
The Macrouridae are a large and diverse family with some 34 genera and 383 species recognized (well over half of which are contained in just three genera, Caelorinchus, Coryphaenoides and Nezumia). They range in length from approximately 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in the graceful grenadier (Hymenocephalus gracilis) to 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) in the giant grenadier, Albatrossia pectoralis. An important commercial fishery exists for the larger species, such as the giant grenadier and roundnose grenadier, Coryphaenoides rupestris. The family as a whole may represent up to 15 percent of the deep-sea fish population.
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Grenadiers or rattails at a debth of 2660m webres |
The giant grenadier, Albatrossia pectoralis , is a very large rattail, the only member of the genus Albatrossia, found in the north Pacific from northern Japan to the Okhotsk and Bering seas, east to the Gulf of Alaska, and south to northern Baja California in Mexico, at depths of between 140 and 3,500 m. Its length is up to 2.1 m.
The giant grenadier has the usual greatly elongated pointed tail of the rattails.
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As few rattail larvae have been recovered, little is known of their life history. They are known to produce a large number (over 100,000) of tiny (1–2 millimetres/0.039–0.079 inches in diameter) eggs made buoyant by lipid droplets. The eggs are presumed to float up to the thermocline (the interface between warmer surface waters and cold, deeper waters) where they develop. The juveniles remain in shallower waters, gradually migrating to greater depths with age.
Spawning may or may not be tied to the seasons, depending on the species. At least one species, Coryphaenoides armatus, is thought to be semelparous; that is, the adults die after spawning. Non-semelparous species may live to 56 years or more. The Macrouridae in general are thought to have low resilience; commercially exploited species may be overfished and this could soon lead to a collapse of rattail fisheries.
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Source: Wikipedia
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