Benthopelagic fish

Benthopelagic fish inhabit the water just above the bottom, feeding on benthos and benthopelagic zooplankton. Most dermersal fish are benthopelagic.

They can be divided into flabby or robust body types. Flabby benthopelagic fishes are like bathopelagic fishes, they have a reduced body mass, and low metabolic rates, expending minimal energy as they lie and wait to ambush prey. An example of a flabby fish is the cusk-eel Acanthonus armatus, a predator with a huge head and a body that is 90 percent water. This fish has the largest ears (otoliths) and the smallest brain in relation to its body size of all known vertebrates.

Robust benthopelagic fish are muscular swimmers that actively cruise the bottom searching for prey. They may live around features, such as seamounts, which have strong currents. Examples are the orange roughy and Patagonian toothfish. Because these fish were once abundant, and because their robust bodies are good to eat, these fish have been commercially harvested.

Some fishes don't fit into the above classification. For example, the family of nearly blind spiderfishes, common and widely distributed, feed on benthopelagic zooplankton. Yet they are strictly benthic fish, since they stay in contact with the bottom. Their fins have long rays they use to "stand" on the bottom while they face the current and grab zooplankton as it passes by.

The deepest-living fish known, the strictly benthic Abyssobrotula galatheae, eel-like and blind, feeds on benthic invertebrates.

Pacific hagfish resting on bottom. Hagfish coat themselves and any dead fish they find with noxious slime making them inedible to other species."

The deepest point of the ocean is about 11,000 metres. Bathypelagic fishes are not normally found below 3,000 metres. The greatest depth recorded for a benthic fish is 8,370 m. It may be that extreme pressures interfere with essential enzyme functions.

Benthic fishes are likely to be found, and are more diverse, on the continental slope, where there is habitat diversity and often food supplies. About 40% of the ocean floor consists of abyssal plains, but these flat, featureless regions are covered with sediment and largely devoid of benthic life (benthos). Deep sea benthic fishes are more likely to associate with canyons or rock outcroppings among the plains, where invertebrate communities are established. Undersea mountains (seamounts) can intercept deep sea currents, and cause productive upwellings which support benthic fish. Undersea mountain ranges can separate underwater regions into different ecosystems.

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