Hi folks, welcome back to the blog!  This edition of Master’s Monday will be brought to you by Mike Novotny. I am a Master’s candidate at Nova Southeastern University, working under Dr. Tracey Sutton in the Oceanic Ecology Lab, where I study the bathypelagic zone and the fishes that call this environment home. 

The ocean is commonly divided into three layers based on sunlight penetration with depth.  The midnight (aphotic/bathypelagic) zone is the deepest layer, which starts around 1000 meters.  The bathypelagic zone receives no sunlight, has consistent near-freezing temperatures, contains pressures exceeding 100 times that found at the surface, and is the planet’s largest ecosystem!  It is within the depths of the bathypelagic zone that you will find the very intriguing group of fishes that belong to the family Platytroctidae, known also as Tubeshoulders.  Due to the rarity of specimens, there is very little information known about these fishes, which is where my research takes off! 

Tubeshoulders get their name due to a unique tube-like structure that can be found in the shoulder region of all fishes in this family.  This tube leads to an organ that contains a luminous blue/green fluid, which allows the luminescent material to be expelled, possibly, for a potential defense mechanism by temporarily distracting the would-be predator.  Below is a great video about bioluminescence, but jump to 10:40 to see how platytroctids get their name!  

Tubeshoulders have very large eyes, especially for a deep-sea fish!  These large eyes are excellent at detecting low-level, point  source light and distance ranging, suggesting they may be visual predators, however, the diet of tubeshoulders has yet to be examined.  My thesis research addresses this crucial data gap by exploring the feeding behavior and documenting prey preferences of this bathypelagic fish family.  Based on stomach content analysis these fishes seem to feed infrequently. I visually examined and identified the gut contents under a compound microscope, which revealed that members of this family tend to be generalist zooplanktivores, consuming a wide variety of taxa such as, copepods, ostracods, chaetognaths, gelatinous taxa, and even the occasional squid! This study represents the first investigation into the diet of this fish family, and adds to the sparse community data of the bathypelagic zone, by identifying nutrient pathways that connect this deep-sea ecosystem to the upper ocean.