the black swallower continuing our investigations into very deep sea life and little-known species with fascinating characteristics lead us to another unique creature the black swallow a relatively small and visually unremarkable fish at first glance but when it comes to feeding its small size becomes irrelevant most of us have seen surface creatures like the boa and python with their ability to unlock their jaws and consume prey this trait is not unique to surface creatures for our black swallow it does so in a very similar fashion measuring at just under NUMBER_TOKEN centimeters or NUMBER_TOKEN inches full grown without scales and a black or dark brown color all characteristics of the chairs made onto the deep ocean family other characteristics include a narrow long head and body with snake-like teeth the black swallower hunts at depths ranging from NUMBER_TOKEN to NUMBER_TOKEN NUMBER_TOKEN meters in the darkness of the tropical and subtropical zones but most commonly seen off of the coast of north america over the years the black swallower has been caught only on rare occasions by just a few fishermen with often an amazing tale to tell of what they saw most specimens have been seen dead on the shores near their habitats the black swallower gets that name for being the ocean's version of a competitive eater its flexible jaw and razor teeth allow it to grab onto fish many times its size but unlike other fish capturing the fish does not mean immediately devouring by tearing its prey into bite-sized pieces the swallower does just as the name implies it takes in the kill tail first and completely whole this is where the comparison to constrict the snakes of the surface share a feature with this fish the shallower has a stomach that can expand and distend to several times larger to accommodate much more massive meals than its own body size these images show only some of the smaller prey that have been photographed over the years these fish are often overly enthusiastic about their choice of a meal in essence biting off more than they can chew many times when the swallower attempts to devour something too large its stomach can tear open leading to death at other times the mass of the prey is so large that digestion becomes too slow or impossible due to the inability for the stomach acids to circulate adequately when this happens the meal can rot inside the swallower which can lead to deadly toxicity it can also cause gas from decomposition of the prey to inflate and add buoyancy if this happens the swallower stands the real chance of ascending too quickly leading to the bends and subsequent death one particularly impressive observation came in NUMBER_TOKEN off the south coast of the grand cayman the report from the fishermen who captured the swallower stated that the fish was NUMBER_TOKEN centimeters in length however it was in the process of devouring a snake fish that measured nearly a meter long the black swallower is a truly impressive eater
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