Animal Species:Smooth Goosefish, Lophiodes mutilus (Alcock, 1893)
The Smooth Goosefish has a huge depressed head and a jaws lined with long, pointed, depressable teeth. It lives at depths between 200 m and 800 m.
Standard Common Name
The Smooth Goosefish has a huge depressed head and a jaws lined with long, pointed, depressable teeth. There are numerous sharp spines on the head and fleshy tendrils on the lower jaw. The dorsal fin is made up of three isolated spines on the head and one or two short spines behind the head, which may be embedded beneath the skin. The first dorsal spine may be modified as a lure, with a simple esca distally.
The species is light to dark brown above and lighter brown below. The tendrils on the head are darker brown to black. The peritoneum is black.
It grows to about 40 cm in length.
The Smooth Goosefish occurs in tropical and temperate waters of the Indo-west Pacific.
In Australia it is known from off the Northwest Shelf of Western Australia, northern Queensland to southern New South Wales and off north-eastern Tasmania.
The map below shows the Australian distribution of the species based on public sightings and specimens in Australian Museums. Source: Atlas of Living Australia.
Distribution by collection data
The Smooth Goosefish is a benthic species that lives in continental shelf and slope waters (200 m to 800 m).
- Caruso, J.H. 1981. The systematics and distribution of the lophiid anglerfishes: 1. A revision of the genus Lophiodes with the description of two new species. Copeia. 3: 522-549.
- Caruso, J.H. 1999. Family Lophiidae . in Carpenter, K.E. & V.H. Niem (Eds). FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. Volume 3. Batoid fishes, chimaeras and bony fishes part 1 (Elopidae to Linophrynidae). FAO, Rome. Pp. iii-vi, 1398-2068.
Mark McGrouther , Collection Manager, Ichthyology
Tags fishes, ichthyology, Smooth Goosefish, Lophiodes mutilus, huge depressed head, pointed teeth, sharp spines, brown, light brown underside, 30 cm - 1 m, tropical water, temperate water, marine, continental shelf, continental slope,