Saturday, December 18, 2010

Deepest Living Fish In the World (Video)

A fish called the "Hadal snail fish" (Pseudoliparis Amblystomopsis) is the deepest living fish known to man.  The fish lives in total darkness, at depthes of 25,000 ft deep in the trenches of the Pacific.  At this depth the water pressure is immense, and the temperature approaches freezing.

It was thought that any fish living at these depths must be slow and relatively sparse populated due to the low-energy available in the environment.  But a video filmed by a team of British scientists in 2008 at a depth of more then 25,000 ft clearly shows that they are active, numerous, and even sociable.

The fish look almost like tadpoles and are a plain grey color.  Light is non-existent at these depths, and the fish's eyes seem to have all but disappeared.  The fish instead use vibration sensors and smell as their primary senses.

Small shrimp-like creatures make up the majority of this the Hadal Snail fish's diet.  These shrimp-like creatures feed on detritus and the carcasses of fish from above that sink to the ocean floor.

I recommend full screening this video, as it's quite small otherwise.


Many scientists predict that there are likely fish living at even deeper depths than the snail fish live!

Other articles you might be interested in:

Sardine Run: Feeding Frenzy

1 comment:

  1. Why wouldn't there be fish living deeper? Living out of vibrations must be amazing to study.

    ReplyDelete