A meter and a half (5 ft) of silver wire hanging just under the surface, so thin from above that it disappears entirely and so still that snorkelers swim past without registering it. The body is flattened side to side, which is what separates this species from the round-bodied houndfishes.
It hunts by lying in the surface film and taking small fish from below with a sideways sweep of the beak. The jaws are studded with fine teeth angled backwards; nothing that goes in comes out again.
The danger flag on this card is not about the teeth. Needlefish leap when startled, they leap toward light, and at that speed a fish this size is a spear driven by its own tail. Injuries and deaths on record across the tropics involve night fishing, lamps and open boats - never a diver on a reef in daylight. If you are on the surface at night with a torch, keep the beam out of the water and keep it away from your body.
They are a surface species through and through: they spawn among floating weed, gluing eggs to it with fine filaments, and the young live in the drifting rafts until they are big enough to hold station.
The genus. Ablennes Jordan & Fordice 1887 - blennos (mucus). ETYFish
The species. Ablennes hians (Valenciennes 1846) - gaping. ETYFish
- extremely long thin body, flattened side to side rather than round
- long beak of a jaw, both halves the same length, full of needle teeth
- silver with faint dark bars on the flank
- hangs motionless just under the surface, often mistaken for a floating stick
- length up to 140 cm
Why it's threatened
There are no known major threats.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
