They have poor eyesight and seemed to have developed an unusual prominent lateral line where they can sense vibration and movement. Scientists say that having such horrible eyesight it hunts by using a technique called chemoreception. To make it easier to understand. It basically swims around in the dark untill it bumps into something edible. Then eats it. Usually feeding on small fish and squid. It is said that the fangtooth will rise to the upper layers at night to feed and descend back to depths of which it became during the day. For if it stays up in those layers that are closer to the surface during the day. They could as well become a meal for larger predators like tuna and marlin.
Found in temperate and tropical oceans. Also off the coast of Australia. The fangtooth are one of the deepest living species of fish discoverd. Usually seen between 600-6,500 feet but has also been observed at the depths of 16,000 feet. And at those depths the pressure is so intense and the tempature is nearly freezing.
Laying eggs is how the fangtooth reproduces. Hatching into really small plankton sized larvae. No one really knows about their spawning habits. But they have been observed between June and August. As the little larvae grows into the juvenile stage it looks nothing like the adults. They are light gray in color and have long spines on their heads, larger eyes, and smaller teeth. They look so different that scientists began to think that this was a completely different species. Even the way of feeding is different. When in the juvenile stage they will feed by filtering plankton from the water using specially formed gill rakes. And as they reach maturity these gill rakes eventually dissapear. At about 3 inches in size is when they start to look like the adults also start to descend to deeper waters. Scientist still don't know exactly how long they live. But have been able to keep them alive for months in captivity even though the tempature and pressure is way different.
