icefish

icefish, any of several different fishes, among them certain members of the family Channichthyidae, or Chaenichthyidae (order Perciformes), sometimes called crocodile icefish because of the shape of the snout. They are also called white-blooded fish, because they lack red blood cells and hemoglobin. Their blood carries much less oxygen than that of red-blooded fish, but icefish have larger hearts and gill blood vessels to circulate a greater volume of blood, and this extracts sufficient oxygen from the oxygen-rich waters of the Southern Ocean. Most of the 16 species of crocodile icefishes occur in the Antarctic and feed on crustaceans and small fish.

Certain species of smelt and species of Salanx, or icicle fish, are also called icefish. These forms belong to separate families in the order Salmoniformes. See also icicle fish.