Channichthys

Channichthys is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Channichthyidae, the crocodile icefishes. They are native to the Southern Ocean.

==Taxonomy== Channichthys was first formally described as a genus in 1844 by the Scottish naval surgeon, naturalist and Arctic explorer John Richardson when he described the unicorn icefish (Channichthys rhinoceratus) which he placed in a new monotypic genus. Subsequently up to nine species have been classified within Channichthys which is what FishBase does while Catalog of Fishes recognises 5 species while other authorities are of the view that the genus is monotypic and that C. rhinoceratus is the only species. The genus name is a compound of channos meaning "gape" and ichthys which means "fish", alluding to the wide gape of these fishes.