Tripod Fish (Bathypterois cf viridensis) - Gulf of Mexico, 2011

The Tripod Fish, Bathypterois cf viridensis, lives at the bottom of the ocean. The elongate fin rays are used as stilts. Keeping the fish elevated just above the ocean floor. While a number of specimens have been captured in nets while trawling, little is known of the biology and ecology of Tripod Fish, including how they move on the ocean bottom. Some have speculated that they hop, others that they crawl like a frogfish, others still that they swim up off the bottom to snatch prey and then sink back down to rest in the sediments on their stilts. This individual was captured between 900 meters depth and the surface in the Gulf of Mexico, 2011.