The Digital Fish Library

Distribution:
Tropical to temperate waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, except the northeast Pacific.

Habitat:
Over rocky reefs or in caves and occasionally over coral reefs, in depths from 3 to 300 m.

Remarks:
All species of pinecone fish are bioluminescent with bacterial light organs on the lower jaw. This is one of the few families of nearshore fishes with bioluminescence. Pinecone fishes have large, platelike scales, each with a fairly prominent spine.

Pineconefish are plankton pickers or feed on benthic crustaceans. There are two genera and four species and they are popular in the aquarium trade.

References:
Allen et al., 2003; Nelson 2006; Paxton 1999