Flashlight Fish | Oceana
Home / Flashlight Fish

Marine Life Encyclopedia

Ocean Fishes

Flashlight Fish

Photoblepharon Palpebratum

Distribution

Tropical latitudes in the eastern Indian and wider Pacific oceans

ECOSYSTEM/HABITAT

Rocky and coral reefs

FEEDING HABITS

Foraging predator

TAXONOMY

Order Beryciformes (squirrelfishes and relatives), Family Anomalopidae (flashlight fishes)

Flashlight fish are predominately nocturnal and are only rarely observed by SCUBA divers during the day. They spend most of the daylight hours hidden in caves or holes in the reef surface. They feed at night away from the reef surface and likely use their light organs to help them locate small, planktonic prey. Like many species that produce light, the flashlight fish has a muscular skin flap that it can manipulate to reveal or hide its light. In this manner, it likely also uses its light to communicate with others of the same species and to confuse predators. This species’ ability to produce light implies that it is a descendent of a deep-sea lineage. Several of its most closely related groups still inhabit the deep sea (including fangtooths, slimeheads, and others). Though most groups of deep-sea fishes are descendents of shallow water forms, the flashlight fish seems to represent an opposite colonization.

The flashlight fish is likely naturally rare. It is not eaten by people but is occasionally captured for use in public and private aquaria. As an inhabitant of vulnerable Pacific coral reefs, this species’ fate is tied to that of its preferred ecosystem. Destructive fishing, climate change, ocean acidification, pollution, and other problems threaten coral reefs around the world and risk the fishes and invertebrates that rely on them.

Engage Youth with Sailors for the Sea

Oceana joined forces with Sailors for the Sea, an ocean conservation organization dedicated to educating and engaging the world’s boating community. Sailors for the Sea developed the KELP (Kids Environmental Lesson Plans) program to create the next generation of ocean stewards. Click here or below to download hands-on marine science activities for kids.

Kids Environmental Lesson Plans

Get Involved

Donate Today

SUPPORT OUR WORK TO PROTECT THE OCEANS BY GIVING TODAY

With the support of more than 1 million activists like you, we have already protected nearly 4 million square miles of ocean.

Donate Now

TAKE ACTION NOW

Support policy change for the oceans

Decision-makers need to hear from ocean lovers like you. Make your voice heard!

Sign Now

VISIT OUR ADOPTION CENTER

SYMBOLICALLY ADOPT AN ANIMAL TODAY

Visit our online store to see all the ocean animals you can symbolically adopt, either for yourself or as a gift for someone else.

Shop Today

DOWNLOAD OCEAN ACTIVITIES

HELP KIDS DISCOVER OUR BLUE PLANET

Our free KELP (Kids Environmental Lesson Plans) empower children to learn about and protect our oceans!

Learn More

FEATURED CAMPAIGN

Save the Oceans, Feed the World

We are restoring the world’s wild fish populations to serve as a sustainable source of protein for people.

Learn More

More CAMPAIGNs

Protect Habitat

Bycatch

Plastics

View All

CONTACT

Oceana International Headquarters
1025 Connecticut Avenue, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20036 USA

General Inquiries
+1(202)-833-3900
info@oceana.org

Donation Inquiries
+1(202)-996-7174
wavemaker@oceana.org

Press Inquiries
+1(202)-833-3900
press@oceana.org

OCEANA'S EFFICIENCY

BECOME A WAVEMAKER

Sign up today to get weekly updates and action alerts from Oceana.

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT WITH A DONATION

We have already protected nearly 4 million square miles of ocean and innumerable sea life - but there is still more to be done.

Donate Now

QUICK LINKS: