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Broadgilled Hagfish
Eptatretus cirrhatus (Forster, 1801)

All images: A Broadgilled Hagfish caught in a commercial trawl net at a depth of about 160 m, off Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, July 2004. The fish is now registered in the Australian Museum Fish Collection (AMS I.43389-001). View larger image. Photo: David Greenhalgh.

View larger image. Photo: Mark McGrouther.

Lateral view of the head. View larger image. Photo: Mark McGrouther.

Underside of the head showing the mouth and barbels. View larger image. Photo: Mark McGrouther.

Gill openings. View larger image. Photo: Mark McGrouther.

The tail. View larger image. Photo: Mark McGrouther.

The Broadgilled Hagfish has an eel-like body that lacks scales. It has vestigial eyes, six barbels around the mouth and six or seven gill openings on the lower sides. The tail is paddle-like. There are rows of slime glands on the lower sides. Like other hagfishes, it lacks jaws but has a mouth lined with horny teeth.

It is grey to brown above and sometimes paler below. The gill openings have white borders.

The Broadgilled Hagfish grows to 83 cm in length.

This species occurs in temperate marine waters of southern and eastern Australia and New Zealand.

In Australia it is known from depths of 300 m to 700 m, off southern Queensland to southern New South Wales.

View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.

The Broadgilled Hagfish is also known as the New Zealand Hagfish.

Hagfishes eat mostly dead fishes and worms. They use their rasping teeth to burrow through the body wall or enter through the mouth, gills or anus of larger animals.

Hagfishes are able to produce large quantities of slime. When the concentrated slime solution is ejected from the slime glands it mixes with seawater and expands to several hundred times its initial volume. A bucket of water can be turned into slime in a matter of minutes after the inclusion of a hagfish. These fishes can tie their bodies in a knot and then run the knot down the length of the body to remove slime.

Further reading

1. Fernholm, B. & Paxton, J.R. 1998. Hagfishes. in Carpenter, K.E. & V.H. Niem (Eds). FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. Volume 2. Cephalopods, crustaceans, holothurians and sharks. FAO, Rome. Pp. iii-vi, 688-1396.
2. Fudge, D. 2001. Hagfishes: Champions of Slime. Nature Australia. 27(2): 61-69.
3. May, J.L. & Maxwell, J.G.H. 1986. Field Guide to Trawl Fish from Temperate Waters of Australia. CSIRO Division of Marine Research. Pp. 492.