Species: Bascanichthys bascanium, Sooty eel
Bascanichthys bascanium (Jordan, 1884)
Sooty eel
Body very elongate (body depth 1-2.2% TL); head and trunk 49-57% of TL; tip of tail finless, hard, blunt; head skin rough; eye small; snout short, blunt, grooved on underside; front nostril tubular, rear nostril opens in mouth; jaw teeth small, conical, in 1 row on jaws, 2 rows on roof of mouth, those between top jaws exposed when mouth is closed; gill opening crescent-like, at lower side; dorsal and anal fins low; dorsal origin before gill opening; pectoral fin small, broad based, width 38-86% of gill opening; lateral line complete, lines of each side of head connected by 2 canals with across top of head.
Dark above, especially on back, graduating to pale below; head paler than body; fins pale, dorsal fin appears as a white stripe along dark back; no pale spots along lateral line.
Reaches 79 cm.
Sandy bottoms, along shallow sandy beaches.
Depth range: 0-24 m.
Georgia to Panama.
High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
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- Marine
- Marine Only
- Inshore/Offshore
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- Inshore
- Inshore Only
- Water Column Position
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- Bottom only
- Bottom
- Habitat
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- Soft bottom only
- Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
- Beach
- Sand & gravel
- FishBase Habitat
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- Demersal
- Feeding Group
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- Carnivore
- Data
- Diet
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- Mobile benthic worms
- Data
- Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
- Egg Type
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- Data
- Pelagic larva
- Pelagic
- Global Endemism
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- West Atlantic Endemic
- Greater Caribbean non-endemic
- All species.
- Regional Endemism
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- All species..
- Continent + Island (s)
- Island (s)
- GC non-endemic
- Continent
- Extends North of GC
- Residency
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- Resident
- Climate Zone
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- Tropical (10-23N, Nicaragua / Cuba)
- Subtropical (23-35N, Florida / Carolinas / Bermuda)
- Temperate (>35N)
- IUCN Red List
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- Least concern
- Listed
- CITES
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- Not listed
- Length Max
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- 79
- Depth Range Min
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- 0
- Depth Range Max
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- 24
