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Snubnosed Eel
Simenchelys parasitica Gill, 1879
A Snubnosed Eel trawled during the NORFANZ expedition at a depth between 1082m and 1120m, on the Lord Howe Rise between Australia and New Zealand, June 2003. This fish is now registered in the CSIRO Fish Collection, Hobart. Photo: K.Parkinson © NORFANZ. View larger image.
Head of the fish in the upper image. Note the snub-nosed snout. Photo: K.Parkinson © NORFANZ. View larger image.
The Snubnosed Eel has a moderately elongate body with well developed fins. It can be recognised by its snub-nosed appearance, small mouth and embedded scales. It is grey to grey-brown with darker fin margins.
This species grows to 61cm in length.
It feeds on epibenthic (glossary) crustaceans and fishes, and is reported to be a fish parasite.
The Snubnosed Eel occurs in temperate marine waters of the Atlantic and Indo-West and Central Pacific. It inhabits continental slope and upper abyssal waters at depths from 136m to 2620m.
In Australia it is known from off northern Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania and the Great Australian Bight off Western Australia.
The Snubnosed Eel is the only member of the subfamily Simenchelyinae (family Synaphobranchidae).
View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.
Further reading
- Karmovskaya, E.S. 1978. Preliminary list of eels (Anguilliformes, Osteichthys) of the Australian-New Zealand region (on materials collected during the 16th cruise of the R/V Dimitry Mendeleev). Trudy Inst. Okeanol. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R. 112: 147-151 (in Russian).
- Smith, D. G. 1999. Synaphobranchidae. 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 3. Batoid fishes, chimaeras and bony fishes part 1 (Elopidae to Linophrynidae). FAO, Rome. Pp. iii-vi, 1398-2068.
