Tripod Spiderfish

Interesting Info

• The Tripod Spiderfish is one of the strangest fish in the deep sea, famous for perching on the ocean floor using its incredibly long fin rays like stilts.
• It has been recorded worldwide in deep oceans, including Australian waters off New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, and Western Australia.
• Adults grow up to 40 cm (16 in) long, but their fin rays can extend to a metre (3 ft), making the fish look much larger when standing upright.
• The pelvic and caudal (tail) fin rays are enormously elongated, stiff enough to support the fish off the seabed like legs on a tripod.
• It spends much of its life motionless, balanced on its fin rays, facing into the current to pick up passing prey.
• Tripod Spiderfish feed on small shrimps, planktonic crustaceans, and other tiny animals drifting close to the seabed.
• They live at extreme depths up to 2,400 m, in the permanent darkness of the deep ocean.
• Their eyes are adapted for low light, but feeding mostly depends on sensing vibrations in the water.
• Males and females look similar, though females may grow slightly larger.
• Spawning probably happens high in the water column, with eggs and larvae drifting in the open ocean before settling into deeper habitats as they grow.
• The lifespan is not well known, but deep-sea fishes of similar size often live 10–20 years.
• Predators include deep-diving sharks, grenadiers, and large squid that hunt along the seabed.
• The tripod stance may help conserve energy in the nutrient-poor deep sea, allowing them to wait patiently for food.
• They are sometimes caught in deep-sea research trawls, but rarely observed alive by humans except through deep-sea cameras and submersibles.
• The species name grallator comes from Latin, meaning “one who walks on stilts.”