Pink Ventfish

Pink Ventfish
Thermarces cerberus
Up to 11 cm
Chimney Snacker
Feast on a hotbed of life surrounding thermal vents like 'grey smoker' chimneys and cold seeps at extreme depths. Engineer ecosystems by selectively preying on certain bits like limpets, allowing other species to thrive. Colonise newly formed vent systems rapidly. Thought to have been more abundant in the past. Agents of change such as continental drift meant that pockets of these persisted while the broader population shrunk.