Aerobic metabolism of the anglerfish Melanocetus johnsoni, a deep-pelagic marine sit-and-wait predator

Melanocetus johnsoni (Teleostei:Melanocetidae), a bathypelagic marine sit-and-wait predatory fish captured off Hawaii, has an average aerobic metabolism of 0.486 μmol OZ g−1 hʹ,a rate much lower than that of more active species from similar depths but similar to that of other sit-and-wait predators. Larger individuals have a lower mass-specific metabolic rate than do small ones (the slope of the allometric relationship between wet mass and mass-specific metabolism is -0.46). This species, a resident of the oxygen minimum layer, is capable of regulating its oxygen consumption down to the lowest oxygen pressures encountered in its environment off Hawaii, and can also survive for hours under severely hypoxic or anaerobic conditions.