Snubnosed eel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Snubnosed eel |
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Conchognathus grimaldii Collett, 1889 |
The snubnosed eel, also called the pug-nosed eel or slime eel, is a unique deep-sea fish. Its scientific name is Simenchelys parasitica. It is the only species in its group. Scientists sometimes place it in the cutthroat eel family, Synaphobranchidae. Other experts believe it belongs in its own special family, Simenchelyidae.
You can find this eel in the deep parts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It usually lives near the ocean floor, about 500–1,800 m (1,600–5,900 ft) down. The snubnosed eel often acts as a scavenger, eating dead animals. But it's also known for using its strong jaws and teeth to burrow into larger fish. This eel is not harmful to people and is not caught for food. The name Simenchelys means "pug-nosed eel," which describes its short, blunt snout.
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Where Snubnosed Eels Live
In the eastern Atlantic Ocean, snubnosed eels are found from France down to Madeira and the Azores. They also live off Cape Verde and South Africa. In the western Atlantic, they have been caught near the United States.
In the Pacific Ocean, you can find them near Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii. These eels have been seen as deep as 2,620 m (8,600 ft). However, they mostly live between 500 and 1,800 m (1,600 and 5,900 ft) on the continental slope. The water in these areas is quite cold, usually 4–9 °C (39–48 °F). Sometimes, many snubnosed eels are caught in one spot. This suggests they might live in large groups or schools.
What Snubnosed Eels Look Like
The snubnosed eel has a long, strong body. It gets flatter towards its tail. Its head is thick and round, with a short, blunt snout. The mouth is very special; it's a tiny horizontal slit surrounded by folded lips. The jaws are short and powerful. The front jaw bones are joined together.
These eels have a single row of small, round, close-set teeth. They do not have teeth on the roof of their mouth. Their eyes are small and round. The front nostrils are short tubes, and the back ones are like slits. The gill openings are small and are located under their small, triangle-shaped pectoral fins.
The dorsal, caudal, and anal fins are all connected. The dorsal fin starts above the pectoral fins, and the anal fin begins behind the vent. The eel's scales look similar to those of Anguilla eels. They are arranged in a crisscross pattern. The eel's color is gray to grayish brown. The edges of its fins and its lateral line are darker. Snubnosed eels can grow up to 61 cm (24 in) long.
Snubnosed Eel Habits and Life
Young snubnosed eels eat small creatures like copepods and amphipods that live on the seafloor. Adult eels are usually hagfish-like scavengers. They use their strong jaws and teeth to tear pieces of meat from dead animals that have sunk to the ocean floor.
However, this eel is also known for a unique behavior: sometimes it acts like a parasite. An author named Frank Thomas Bullen wrote in 1904 that the eel can attach itself to larger fish like halibut. It can then burrow into their bodies. Another scientist, Spencer Fullerton Baird, noted that these eels were sometimes found near the backbone of halibut and cod. They seemed to stay there for a while without killing the fish. Baird also mentioned that eels might burrow into the bellies of shad caught in nets to eat their eggs quickly.
In 1992, an interesting discovery was made. Two snubnosed eels were found inside the heart of a large 395 kg (871 lb) shortfin mako shark. These eels were young females, about 21 and 24 cm (8.3 and 9.4 in) long. They had been feeding on the shark's blood. Scientists believe the eels might have entered the shark through its gills or throat after the shark was weakened. Then, they made their way to the heart. Even with these stories of parasitic behavior, scientists have seen free-swimming eels. They have also caught them in traps with bait. This suggests that snubnosed eels are mostly scavengers. They might only enter sick or dying fish when they get the chance.
Reproduction and Life Cycle
Snubnosed eels lay eggs. These eggs are likely free-floating in the water and are at least 2 mm (0.079 in) wide. One female eel, 51 cm (20 in) long, had about 30,000 eggs in her ovary. Like all eels, the snubnosed eel goes through a leptocephalus larval stage. This larva then changes into a young eel that looks like the adult. Scientists have not yet found the leptocephalus larvae for this species. But based on how the young eels look, the larvae probably have long bodies with small heads and mouths. They likely have very little color. Young eels that are changing are white, and their black peritoneum (a membrane inside the body) is easy to see. One known young eel was 11 cm (4.3 in) long. Eels become adults when they are about 50–53 cm (20–21 in) long. A small worm called Hypertrema ambovatum is known to live as a parasite in the intestines of this eel.
Snubnosed Eel Research
In 2002, a group of scientists led by Koyama reported an important discovery. They were able to grow cells from the pectoral fin of a snubnosed eel in a lab. They kept these cells alive for over a year. This was one of the first times that cells from a deep-sea animal were successfully grown for a long time outside its body. This research is very important for many areas of biotechnology, which uses living things to create new products or solve problems.
