Author: Cocco, 1829
Gonichthys coccoi Cocco, 1829
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Gonichthys cocco (Cocco, 1829) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: dorsal finrays 11 (10-12, rarely 13); anal finrays 22 (21-23) pectoral finrays 14 (13-16). Gillrakers 4 (5) + 1 + 7 (6- 8), total 12 (11-13). AO 6 (4-7) + 12-13 (11-14), total 18-19 (17-20). Males with 7 (6 -8) black-rimmed luminous organs supra-caudally; females with 5 (3-6 separate oval infra-caudal glands. Size: to 60 mm.
Habitat: high-oceanic, mesopelagic. Mediterranean: day at 500-675 m nyctoepipelagic at surface and down to 135 m. Bermuda: day at 500-1,000 m (occasional specimens at surface); nyctoepipelagic at surface and down to 200 m. Juveniles deeper than 750 m both day and night (Ber muda). Food: no data. Reproduction: caudal glands develop in males al 24 mm and in females at 31 mm; sexually mature from about 38 mm Spawning peak spring early summer (Mediterranean and Bermuda).
Distribution: endemic Atlantic: broadly tropical pattern (holo-eurytropical subpattern), between about 50° N and 30° S and in eastern Mediterranean; rare in western Mediterranean; absent in the Caribbean, the Lesser Antillean region and in the minimum region off Brazil.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Tåning, 1918: 67-70, fig. 23-24 | Sanzo, 1918: 35-37 | Tåning, 1932: pl. 113 (fig. 2) | Tortonese, 1956d: 941-943, fig. 814, pl. 51 (fig. 10).
Otoliths (sagitta). Frost, 1926b: 468, pl. 20 (fig. 15).