Banded Whiptail

Interesting Info

• The Banded Whiptail is a deep-sea rattail fish found off southern Australia and around New Zealand, living along continental slopes where sunlight never reaches.
• It gets its name from the dark vertical bands that wrap around its body, making it stand out from other plain-coloured whiptails.
• Like all rattails, it has a large head, big eyes, and a long tapering tail that makes up most of its body length.
• Its eyes are adapted to detect the faintest traces of light in deep waters.
• Colouration is pale grey to silvery with several dark cross-bands across the back and sides, which is how it gets its common name.
• It lives at depths of 200–1,000+ m (650–3,300 ft), most common on muddy and sandy slopes.
• The Banded Whiptail feeds on benthic invertebrates such as worms, small crustaceans, and molluscs, and may scavenge on dead animals.
• It uses its sensitive lateral line to detect vibrations, a key survival tool in total darkness.
• Like many deep-sea fishes, little is known about its reproduction, but it likely spawns by releasing eggs and sperm into open water, with larvae drifting in plankton.
• Its lifespan is unknown, but many whiptails live 20 years or more due to slow growth in the cold deep sea.
• Predators include larger rattails, deep-sea sharks, and big benthic fishes.
• The species is not well studied and remains one of the many mysterious grenadiers of the Southern Hemisphere.