New Zealand hagfish
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| iNew Zealand hagfish | ||||||||||||||
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 Drawing by Dr Tony Ayling
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| Eptatretus cirrhatus (Forster, 1801) |
The New Zealand hagfish, Eptatretus cirrhatus, is a hagfish of the genus Eptatretus, found in south and east Australia, and around New Zealand, at depths of between 40 and 700 metres. Their length is up to 1 metre.
The New Zealand hagfish is a primitive eel-shaped fish, a surviving remnant of one of the earliest groups of fishes that first appeared over 350 million years ago, and which does not have jaws, bony skeleton, eyes, or true fins. Round-bodied in cross-section, it is more flattened towards the hind end and forms small flaps that resemble fins. The mouth is a small sucking disc on the front of the body bearing several rasp-like horny teeth, and is fringed by six short barbels. The gills open to the exterior through seven pairs of small pores behind the head. They have a line of large mucus glands down each side and can produce huge quantities of sticky slime when disturbed.
Body colour varies from pink-brown to dark brown, but this is covered by a blue-grey layer of mucus when seen underwater.
This fish feeds by sucking on living or dead fish, detecting live prey by water movement and smell, and dead fish purely by smell.
[edit] References
- Eptatretus cirrhatus (TSN 159765). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 18 April 2006.
- "Eptatretus cirrhatus". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. January 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 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
