Untouchable Bathysphere fish

* Five-lined constellation fish
* Pallid sailfin
* Abyssal rainbow gar
* Giant dragonfish
* Three-starred anglerfish

The untouchable Bathysphere fish are an unknown, possibly extinct collection of fishes that lived off the coast of the Bermuda, only observed in 1932.

*(Fig. 1-5: portraits of the untouchable fish created by Else Bostelmann for Beebe.)*

## Description

### Five-lined constellation fish

The five-lined constellation fish (*Bathysidus pentagrammus*) is the first of the proposed fish spotted by American naturalist William Beebe in 1932 in the unmanned deep sea marine craft; the Bathysphere. As Beebe describes, at a fee of 1900 feet, a school of fish began to pass the vessel. Yelling for the descent to stop, he describes a discoidal fish with a large continuous vertical fin, a large eye, a medium mouth, small pectoral fins and brown-ish skin. He says they swung the small craft's light beam towards the fish, revealing five lines of photophores. He notes one equatorial and two curved lines above and below the middle row. The bioluminescence is a pale yellow, lined with light blue rings and a middle semicircle of bright purple.

—The first half of Beebe's writings.
In the second half of his writings, he notes that the single fish slowly turns it's body, revealing a slender profile. He states the fish bears similarities with Chaetodon and Acanthuris, and he says he might classify the fish as either, but it was certainly not, and that bioluminescence was an adaptation to depth living .

—The second half of Beebe's writings.

### Pallid sailfin

The pallid sailfin (*Bathyembryx istiophasma*; approx. "it comes from deep in the abyss and swims with ghostly sails") is a fish observed in 1932 off-the-coast of Bermuda by American naturalist William Beebe in the Bathysphere. Beebe writes:

—Beebe's writings
He views a large fish suspended halfway in the Bathysphere's light, It's fins waved slowly, about 2 feet in length, lacking bioluminescence, had a small eye and a "good-sized" mouth. When the fish shifts, Beebe spots a long and wide filamentous pectoral fin. In the light, the animal's skin is a pale olive colour. He further notes the lack of a tail, reduced to a small nub, with the pectoral fins in their place and stretching far upwards and colourless. The naturalist missed if the animal had teeth or pelvic fins, stating that ray counting and nostrils were "out of the question". He places this fish in, or close to, a small group of depth-dwelling fishes "cetovumidce" (typo, unknown origin). The fish glides into the dark, with no noted increase in vibrations in their fins. This sighting was at a depth of 1500 feet, and once done recording the specimen, ordered for the craft to descend. After seeing the abyssal rainbow gar at a depth of 2500 feet, Beebe believes a sighting of another fish:

—Beebe, now at 2500 feet
Beebe thinks he catches a glimpse at a second, if not the same, individual of pallid sailfin. This is difficult to confirm .

### Abyssal rainbow gar

The abyssal rainbow gar (no genus or species assigned) is a fish observed in the Bathysphere by American naturalist William Beebe in 1932, of the coast of Bermuda. The fish is possibly a needlefish or a garfish. Of all fish observed by Beebe, the abyssal rainbow gar was the only to not be given a scientific name. At 2500 feet, at 11:17, Beebe recalls:

—Beebe's writings
The light of the Bathysphere. He spots four fish, of which he could not assign classification. They stood nearly upright, four inches tall, and are "anything but gars". They levitated in the center of the attached lamp, not affected by the light. He observes a slight fanning in the animal's dorsal fin. He states all four fish retained their positions equal spaces apart, slowly swimming away. They were elongate, slender, with pointed jaws and stiffly extended. Jaws and head are a bright scarlet, which abruptly change to a a bright-light blue at the gills, which fades into a strong yellow at the posterior end of the body, including the tail. Beebe finishes his writings questioning why they had been so bright, since, without the electric lamp, would not have been seen, adding that it may have been a useless by-product of evolution .

### Giant dragonfish

The giant dragonfish (*Bathysphaera intacta*; "untouchable Bathysphere fish") is a proposed fish species observed by American naturalist William Beebe in the 1932 Bathysphere dive of the coast of Bermuda. At a depth of 2100 feet, two fish 6-8 feet away slowly swim. This is "the most exciting experience of the whole dive", according to Beebe, he writes:

—Beebe's entry on the "dragonfish"
Each was about 6 feet in length, generally shaped like a barracuda, with shorter jaws left open for the entire observation. A single row of light blue-ish lights lined each side of the fish. The fishes eyes were large cmpared with body size, and an underbite possessing many fangs, illuminated by a type of mucus or internal bioluminescence. According to him, the far-placed vertical fins allowed him to classify them as melanostomidae. Two elongated appendages hung from the body, each tipped with bulbs. The farthest reddish and the lowest blue. They are noted to have twitched beneath the fish, one from the mandible and the other back-by the tail. Beebe observed no stem or paired fins, although they were likely present .

### Three-starred anglerfish

The three-starred anglerfish (*Bathyceratias trilynchus*) is a possible fish species recorded on the 1932 Bathysphere diving expedition by American naturalist William Beebe. About one minute before viewing the pallid sailfin a second time, Beebe spots a strange fish, writing:

—Beebe on the three-starred anglerfish
At a depth of 2470 feet, the suspended Bathysphere allowed Beebe to observe a single anglerfish come into view. It appears close to the extant genera Ceratias and Cryptopsaras, with a flattened mouth, short even teeth. The individual was six inches long, with an oval outline, black colouration and a small eye. Fins are typical, despite three unusual illicia tipped with a strong but pale yellow bulb. This light reflects from the upper angle of the fish. In front of these, two pear-shaped organs sit, like to common Cryptopsaras. Beebe does not record paired fins .

## Synonyms

It is possible the features Beebe observes in all these fish are mistaken characteristics from other deep-sea fauna. For example, the rhomboidal tail with fins in the pallid sailfin could be the mistaken mantle of a depth-bound squid species, the black (translucent?) body and bioluminescent rows of the five-lined constellation fish be a mistaken comb jelly, known already to science or even some features were misinterpreted by Beebe. The air of the Bathysphere is noted to have had dangerous air quality, and were also susceptible to leakage and decompression. However, it is also possible these are unknown extant fish yet-to-be discovered since Beebe's expeditions. Additionally, it is also possible these species have since gone extinct since the 1930s, since humans have been making deep sea organisms extinct, presumably due to overfishing. Beebe described these fish with no adequate description and no holotype, and they are nomen nudums. All fish were written about in 1934 .

## References

1. ↑ https://cryptidarchives.fandom.com/wiki/Five-lined\_constellationfish
2. ↑ https://extinct-and-extant.blogspot.com/2021/05/beebes-abyssal-fishes-imaginary.html
3. ↑ https://cryptidarchives.fandom.com/wiki/Pallid\_sailfin
4. ↑ https://cryptidarchives.fandom.com/wiki/Abyssal\_rainbow\_gar
5. ↑ https://cryptidarchives.fandom.com/wiki/Giant\_dragonfish
6. ↑ https://cryptidarchives.fandom.com/wiki/Three-starred\_anglerfish
7. ↑ Terror in the Deep The Untouchable Fish Incident