Discover

Today
Animals
Explore
Archive
Search

Use it

Classroom
Resources
Field lab
Quiz
Saved

Trust

Methodology
Sources
Corrections
Accessibility
Contributors

Details

About
Contact
Privacy
Terms
Newsletter

Animal profile

Black Swallower

Chiasmodon niger

ActinopterygiiBathypelagic waters, roughly 700 to 2,700 metres

Field profile

The black swallower is a small dark deep-sea fish rarely exceeding 25 centimetres, with a distensible stomach that hangs below the body when full. Its jaws and ribs allow it to take prey much larger than itself. Specimens are often found floating at the surface.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2023-10-14

Black Swallower

The black swallower swallows fish longer than itself

The black swallower's stomach stretches into a translucent sac below its body, letting a fish of about twenty centimetres engulf prey several times its own mass, sometimes with fatal results.

Read with evidence →

Black Swallower | Daily Animal Facts