The lumpsucker Eumicrotremus uenoi, previously confused with Eumicrotremus awae, has previously been recorded from the Sea of Japan coast from Yamagata to Hyogo prefectures, Japan, and the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula. Additional records of E. uenoi from Japan include two specimens recently collected from Kumamoto Prefecture, and a single specimen from Shimane Prefecture. A detailed description of these specimens is provided with comments on intraspecific genetic variations. Although the species has been characterized by having three anterior mandibular pores, each with a barbel-like tube, one of the recently collected specimens lacked barbel-like tubes, such being regarded as an intraspecific morphological variation.

A single specimen of Opistognathus (Opistognathidae), collected by biological dredge at a depth of ca. 105 m off Miyako Island (25˚03–04′N, 125˚11–12′E), was identified as Opistognathus erdmanni Smith-Vaniz, 2023, previously known only from the Mergui Islands, in the Andaman Sea off Myanmar (50–55 m depth). The specimen, representing the second record of the species and first from Japan, possessed the following combination of diagnostic features: dorsal-fin rays XI , 11; anal-fin rays II, 10; gill rakers 9 + 22 = 31; predorsal area scaleless; posterior end of upper jaw rigid; 5 dark blotches on dorsum; scales without black spots; dorsal, anal and caudal fins yellowish-white, no white spots on caudal fin; pelvic fin translucent white. The new standard Japanese name “Komorebi-agoamadai” is proposed for O. erdmanni.

The deep-sea whipnose anglerfish family Gigantactinidae includes two genera and 25 species, distributed in the mesopelagic to abyssopelagic zones of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. Metamorphosed females of the genus Rhynchactis Regan, 1925 are characterized by absence of frontals, parietals, and maxillae; 0–2 premaxillary teeth (total of both sides 0–4); dentaries toothless or bearing only minute teeth; 2 hypohyals; pelvic bones present; 3 or 4 (rarely 5) dorsal-fin rays; 3 or 4 anal-fin rays; and innermost four rays of caudal-fin branched. The genus includes three species, Rhynchactis leptonema Regan, 1925, R. macrothrix Bertelsen and Pietsch, 1998, and R. microthrix Bertelsen and Pietsch, 1998. Two specimens [NSMT-P 155016 (37.3 mm standard length: SL), and SPMN-PI 51041 (43.6 mm SL)] of R. macrothrix, were collected off the south-east coast of Tanegashima Island and Suruga Bay, Japan, in the northwestern Pacific, in October 2022, and October 2023, respectively. The species is distinguished by the following combination of characteristics: illicium 109–144% SL, with 11–20 long secondary filaments, the five longest 4.1–15% SL (some with bifid tips); length of illicium proximal to emergence of secondary filaments 43–80.5% of total illicial length. The species has previously been recorded from subtropical and tropical waters of the western and central Atlantic, western Indian, and northwestern Pacific oceans from 31˚N to 14˚S, but not from Japanese waters. The above specimens represent the first records of genus Rhynchactis and its species R. macrothrix from the latter region, SPMN-PI 51041, from Suruga Bay (34˚N), being the northernmost record of the species to date. The new standard Japanese names “Shizuku-anko-zoku” and “Shizuku-anko” are proposed for the genus and species respectively.