Pancake batfish

Halieutichthys aculeatus

The pancake batfish belongs to the family Ogcocephalidae of batfishes. Their distributrition includes western Atlantic, North Carolina, northern Gulf of Mexico to northern South America. They inhabit a subtropical, sandy, reef-associated, and 45–820 m deep environment.

They live on the bottom, covered in sand. The fish are flat, resembling pancakes with a maximum size of ca. 10 cm. They feed on small snails, clams, crustaceans, scallops, worms and occasionally on small fishes. Their eggs and larvae are pelagic and develop upon reaching the bottom.

Two new species of ''Halieutichthys'' batfish were discovered in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, in the region directly affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The two species were named ''Halieutichthys intermedius'' and ''Halieutichthys bispinosus''.
Status: Least concern
EX EW CR EN VU NT LC
Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionChordata
ClassActinopterygii
OrderLophiiformes
FamilyOgcocephalidae
GenusHalieutichthys
SpeciesH. aculeatus