Snubnosed eel
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The snubnosed eel (Simenchelys parasitica) is an eel of the genus Simenchelys, found in the eastern and western Atlantic, off South Africa, and the western Pacific including Japan, Australia and New Zealand, in depths of between 150 and 2,500 metres. Their length is between 30 and 60 centimetres. It is also known as the parasitic eel as it has been reported to be parasitic on fishes. In the ITIS classification system, the snubnosed eel belongs to its own family, Simenchelyidae, however in the FishBase classification system it is placed in the subfamily Simenchelyinae of the family Synaphobranchidae of cutthroat eels.
The snubnosed eel is similar to the deepwater arrowtooth eel having the same scale and gill aperture arrangements, but with the dorsal fin starting a little further back. The head is very blunt indeed, the mouth being just a small slit. It lives by burrowing into the flesh of other fishes, as a parasite.
Colouring is a uniform grey to grey-brown and is sometimes mottled. It lives on the bottom at great depths.
References
- "[Simenchelys parasitica]." FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. January 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
- [Simenchelys parasitica (TSN 161594)]. Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 14 March 2006.
- Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand, (William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1982) ISBN 0-00-216987-8
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