Eyelight fish images (Photoblepharon palpebratum) - stock photos & facts showing this fish that produces light to attract its prey
Scientific classification | Kingdom: Animalia > Phylum: Chordata > Class: Actinopterygii > Order: Beryciformes > Family: Anomalopidae > Genus: Photoblepharon > Species: P. palpebratum
Binomial name > Photoblepharon palpebratum
The eyelight Fish, Photoblepharon palpebratum, is a nocturnal fish of the...
more »Eyelight fish images (Photoblepharon palpebratum) - stock photos & facts showing this fish that produces light to attract its prey
Scientific classification | Kingdom: Animalia > Phylum: Chordata > Class: Actinopterygii > Order: Beryciformes > Family: Anomalopidae > Genus: Photoblepharon > Species: P. palpebratum
Binomial name > Photoblepharon palpebratum
The eyelight Fish, Photoblepharon palpebratum, is a nocturnal fish of the Indo-Pacific with bioluminescent organs under its eyes that serve to attract prey and help it evade predators. It is purplish-brown to black, and usually appears in pairs.
Eyelight fish live in caves and crevices by day and rise to depths of 3-20 meters at night to feed. The bean-shaped photophores under their eyes contain bioluminescent bacteria, which live with the fish in a symbiotic relationship. The photophores glow in the dark, attracting zooplankton and small fish, on which the eyelight fish feed. The fish can reveal and extinguish the photophores by means of a membrane that extends up over the organ. When threatened by a predator, the flashlight fish quickly hides the photophores and flees, effectively disappearing from view of the attacker.
Other species of eyelight fish are found in large groups in the Indo-Pacific. They are visible from the surface at night in schools that can stretch for a kilometer or more. Fishermen are said to use them to help navigate narrow reef passages at night.
Other common names for eyelight fish are flashlight fish, one-fin flashlightfish and Lanterneye fish. A closely related form found in the Red Sea has the scientific name Photobelpharon steinitzi.
« less
