Category:Beryciformes

The Beryciformes are a poorly-understood order of carnivorous ray-finned fishes consisting of 7 families, 30 genera, and 161 species. They feed on small fish and invertebrates. Beyond this, little is known about the biology of most member species because of their nocturnal habits and deepwater habitats. All beryciform species are marine and most live in tropical to temperate, deepwater environments. Most live on the continental shelf and continental slope, with some species being found as deep as 2,000 m (6,600 ft). Some species move closer to the surface at night, while others live entirely in shallow water and are nocturnal, hiding in rock crevices and caves during the day. Several species are mesopelagic and bathypelagic. Beryciformes' bodies are deep and mildly compressed, typically with large eyes that help them see in darker waters. Colors range from red to yellow and brown to black, and sizes range from 8–61 cm (3.1–24.0 in). Member genera include the alfonsinos, squirrelfishes, flashlight fishes, fangtooth fishes, spinyfins, pineconefishes, redfishes, roughies, and slimeheads. A number of member species are caught commercially, including the alfonsino, the splendid alfonsino, and the orange roughy, the latter being much more economically important. Some species have bioluminescent bacteria contained in pockets of skin or in light organs near the eyes, including the anomalopids and monocentrids.

Taxonomy and phylogeny
Beryci­forms first ap­peared dur­ing the Late Cre­ta­ceous pe­riod and have sur­vived to today in rel­a­tive abun­dance. They are con­sid­ered the most prim­i­tive order in Acanthoptery­gii, and as such are split off at the base of the clado­gram below from the rest of the mem­ber or­ders. Beryci­forms are dis­tin­guished by hav­ing 18–19 cau­dal fin rays, as op­posed to per­co­morphs, which have 17. Hav­ing fewer cau­dal fin rays is con­sid­ered a sign of a more re­cently evolved species among fish. The whale­fishes, beard­fishes, gib­ber­fishes, and prick­le­fishes were once con­sid­ered mem­bers of Beryci­formes, but have since been as­signed to sep­a­rate orders.

Phylogeny
A re­cent phy­logeny based on the work Be­tan­cur-Ro­driguez et al. 2017. The Gib­berichthyi­dae (gib­ber­fishes) and Hispi­doberyci­dae (spiny-scale prick­le­fish) of sub­or­der Stephanoberycoidei were not ex­am­ined.

Classification
The order con­tains 7 fam­i­lies, 30 gen­era, and 161 species:


 * Order Beryciformes
 * Suborder Berycoidei
 * Berycidae (alfonsinos, nannygais)
 * Suborder Holocentroidei
 * Holocentridae (soldierfishes, squirrelfishes)
 * Suborder Trachichthyoidei
 * Anomalopidae (flashlight fishes, lanterneye fishes)
 * Diretmidae (spinyfins)
 * Monocentridae (pineconefishes, pineapple fishes)
 * Trachichthyidae (incl. Anoplogastridae)(slimeheads, redfishes, roughies, fangtooth fishes)
 * Order Cetomimiformes
 * Family Rondeletiidae (redmouth whalefishes)
 * Family Barbourisiidae (red/velvet whalefishes)
 * Family Cetomimidae (flabby whalefishes)
 * Order Stephanoberyciformes
 * Family Melamphaidae (bigscale fishes)
 * Family Gibberichthyidae (gibberfishes)
 * Family Hispidoberycidae (Spiny-scale pricklefishes)
 * Family Stephanoberycidae (pricklefishes)

Human interaction
The Beryci­formes are gen­er­ally not im­por­tant to hu­mans, and their trend to­wards liv­ing in deeper wa­ters gen­er­ally keeps many species away from human ac­tiv­ity. Sev­eral species are found in the aquar­ium trade, how­ever. Pineap­ple­fishes are of in­ter­est to fish­keep­ers for their bright col­ors, while squir­relfishes' shal­lower reef habi­tats and bright red col­ors make them more eas­ily col­lected. Flash­light fishes are also kept as pets be­cause of the bi­o­lu­mi­nes­cent or­gans un­der­neath their eyes. The al­fon­si­nos and or­ange roughy are of a dif­fer­ent in­ter­est to hu­mans, tar­geted by deep­wa­ter com­mer­cial fish­eries. In­creased catches could lead to steep pop­u­la­tion de­clines for these species as their ex­tended lifes­pans make them vul­ner­a­ble to over­fish­ing. The or­ange roughy, for ex­am­ple, can live up to 149 years, but takes any­where from 23–40 years to begin reproducing. De­spite these risks, most of the species that have been eval­u­ated by the In­ter­na­tional Union for the Con­ser­va­tion of Na­ture (IUCN) are listed as Least Con­cern or Data De­fi­cient; only a few are clas­si­fied as Vul­ner­a­ble.

Timeline of genera
The Beryci­formes first ap­peared in the Late Cre­ta­ceous and still sur­vive today in rel­a­tive abundance.