Banded whiptail

Taxobox
name = Banded whiptail


image_caption = Drawing by Dr Tony Ayling
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Actinopterygii
ordo = Gadiformes
familia = Macrouridae
genus = "Caelorinchus"
species = "C. fasciatus"
binomial = "Caelorinchus fasciatus"
binomial_authority = (Günther, 1878)The banded whiptail, "Caelorinchus fasciatus", is a rattail of the genus "Caelorinchus", found circumpolar in the Great Southern Ocean at depths of between 70 and 1,100 m. Its length is between 25 and 45 cm.

The banded whiptail has the usual greatly elongated pointed tail of the rattails, as well as very large eyes and a short pointed snout. The fins are rounded except the pelvic which has a longer first dorsal fin ray. There is a small chin barbel.

It diet is copepods, polychaetes, benthic molluscs, arthropods, decapods, amphipods, echinoderms and fishes (myctophids and "Maurolicus").

The colour is dull grey with a series of darker vertical bars on the back and flanks, and the mouth and gill cavities are grey to black.

References

*
* Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, "Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand", (William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1982) ISBN 0-00-216987-8