Author: Balushkin, Petrov & Prutko, 2011
FBname: Shortbeard plunderfish
Comments: Deep-water species collected by bottom long-line at depths 1036-1163 m by hooks. Visual observations of both type specimens, which were keeping alive in container filled with marine water, demonstrate the maintaining of the mental barbel in a horizontal position parallel to the ground when fishes were immovable. In swimming fishes, the mental barbel was pushed back over or alongside the snout by flowing water. <i>P. brevibarbata</i> evidently belongs to the mostly predatory species, which also opportunistically feeds as necrophage. The stomach of the female, captured 20 January 2010, contained (besides the bait, giant Peruvian squid, <i>Dosidicus gigas</i>) the remains of a large crustacean, probably Antarctic shrimp, <i>Notocrangon antarcticus</i>. State of ovaries with traces of recent spawning corresponds to early SGM VI-III, GSI 1.3. The length, width and depth of the left ovary attain about 44, 18 and 6.5 mm correspondently. The liver fills in length about 1/3 of the abdominal cavity; hepatosomatic index reaches 1.6 (Ref. 92304).