The Threadfin Snailfish or Seasnail (Rhodichthys Regina), is a deepsea fish. They are found in the benthic zone at the lowest level of the ocean.
Threadfin Snailfish is a species of snailfish native to the Arctic Ocean and the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, and may also be found in the North Pacific. This species is the only known member of its genus.
They are known to have been found at depths from 1,080 to 2,365 meters (3,543 to 7,759 ft). The Threadfin Snailfish is extremely rare to find because of the depth at which it is found in the ocean.
Some other Snailfish species can also be found in depths ranging from shallow surface waters to greater than 8,000 meters.
Threadfin Snailfish description and appearance
Not much is known about these fishes because they are benthic fish that spends their time near the deep seafloor. Their body is stout and robust, and it narrows drastically near the tail, giving the fish the profile of a droplet or a tadpole.
The caudal fin is narrow, small, and usually gets mistaken with the fish’s dorsal and anal fins, this snailfish does have a caudal fin, but it is too small to propel the fish in the water.
So it moves like the cusk eels. It has a blunt snout and a wide big mouth and has a pale pinkish coloration. This coloration can only be seen when they are alive in the deep water, but if you bring it to the surface, its skin and flesh will become translucent and slimy. Showing the dark-colored organs which are placed in the wide part of the body.
They have wide and flat tooth plates with very small teeth. This species grows to a length of 31 centimeters (12 in).
Threadfin Snailfish habitat
They live throughout the world’s oceans from the Arctic to the Antarctic and from the shallow intertidal zone to many thousands of meters in the deep sea.
They are found in the Arctic Ocean: central Arctic Basin, Norwegian and Greenland seas, Baffin Bay. And also in the North Atlantic: Canada – Davis Strait; common in the Norwegian Sea; Faroe Trough and the Baffin Bay, also north of the Wyville-Thomson Ridge and the Iceland-Faroe Rise.
Snailfish Diet
They eat small benthic crustaceans, mollusks, polychaete worms, and other small invertebrates.