Nomeidae
by R. L. Haedrich
Small to medium-sized fishes with an elongate to deep body, compressed and with mottled, striped or uniform silvery to bluish-black colour pattern. Mouth small, with small teeth, conical (or laterally flattened in the lower jaw of some), in a single series in the jaws; teeth present on vomer, palatines, basibranchials (and in some, on the tongue); 6 branchiostegal rays. Two dorsal fins, the first with 10-12 slender spines at least as long as any ray in the second dorsal which follows almost immediately; soft dorsal and anal fins never falcate, their bases nearly equal in length; 1-3 anal fin spines; pectoral fins becoming decidedly elongate and wing-like with growth; pelvic fins present. Scales small to large, cycloid or rarely with weak cteni, thin and easily shed; lateral line generally high, following the dorsal profile and usually not extending onto the caudal peduncle. A subdermal canal system often prominent beneath the thin skin.
Pelagic oceanic fishes of tropical and subtropical seas. Larvae and juveniles epipelagic, often associated in large numbers with medusae or siphonophores; the adults may be mesopelagic or deep demersal over continental slopes.
Genera 3.
Recent revision: Haedrich (1967. 1972).