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Large-tooth Conger
Bathyuroconger vicinus (Vaillant, 1888)
A 122cm long Large-tooth Conger trawled at a depth of approximately 1000m, by fishing vessel Rubicon, off Babel Island, Tasmania, April 2002 (AMS I.41361-001). View larger image.
Head of the Large-tooth Conger showing the band of long slender teeth on both jaws. View larger image.
The freshly caught Large-tooth Conger. The skin has largely been removed due to damage in the trawl net. View larger image.
The Large-tooth Conger can be recognised by the long pointed teeth on both jaws and long dorsal and anal fin rays. It is dark brown to black. The fish in the image had its skin damaged during capture in the trawl net.
This species grows to at least 1.2m in length.
The Large-tooth Conger preys on other fishes. The specimen in the image had a partially digested 14cm long rattail (Family Macrouridae, AMS I.41361-004) in its gut.
It is recorded from the tropical Atlantic and Indo-West Pacific at depths of 229m to 1318m. The fish in the images was collected from cool temperate water.
There are only three specimens identified as B.vicinus in the Australian Museum Fish Collection. One is the fish in the images and the others (AMS I.20920-011) are 60cm and 65cm long fish trawled in February 1979 at a depth of approximately 900m, north-east of Raine Island, far northern Queensland.
Further reading
- Smith, D.G. 1989. Congridae in Fishes of the Western North Atlantic. Part 9 Volume 1: Orders Anguilliformes and Saccopharyngiformes. Sears Foundation for Marine Research, Yale University. Pp. 655.
- Smith, D.G., 1990. Congridae. in Quero, J.C., Hureau, J.C., Karrer, C., Post A. & L. Saldanha (eds.) Check-list of the fishes of the eastern tropical Atlantic (CLOFETA). JNICT, Lisbon; SEI, Paris; and UNESCO, Paris. Vol. 1: 158-159.
