Stenopterygii is a superorder of bony fishes inhabiting seawater. It comprises 2 orders, including Ateleopodiformes and Stomiiformes. Representatives of the latter inhabit the Adriatic Sea.
(Picture by “Résultats des campagnes scientifiques accomplies sur son yacht par Albert Ier, prince souverain de Monaco (1911)”. Emma Kissling, 1912.)
Stomiiformes is an order of deep-sea pelagic fishes. They inhabit the depths up to 4,500 meters. Almost all members of the order are predators.
They are very widely spread in the world’s oceans, from subtropical and temperate to subarctic and even Antarctic waters.
Schools arranged by some species are so big that they make it difficult to determine the depth using an echo sounder, creating a “false bottom” effect on the device screen.
All members of the family (except for one) have photophores, that is, luminous organs of some marine animals, mainly fish and mollusks.
During the day, representatives of the Stomiatoidei order swim in deep layers of water. When it gets dark, they start hunting, gradually rising closer to the surface in search of small fish and planktonic invertebrates. And they descend back to the depths at dawn.
The order comprises the Gonostomatoidei suborder with two families, including Gonostomatidae (the bristlemouths or lightfishes, or anglemouths) and Sternoptychidae (the marine hatchetfishes or deep-sea hatchetfishes), and the Phosichthyoidei suborder with two families, including Phosichthyidae and Stomiidae.
11 species of the Stomiiformes order from all 4 families inhabit the Adriatic Sea.