Species: Bascanichthys scuticaris, Whip eel
Bascanichthys scuticaris (Goode & Bean, 1880)
Whip eel
Body very elongate (body depth 1.1-2.9% TL); head and trunk 50-58% of TL; tip of tail finless, hard, blunt; head skin rough; eye small; snout short, blunt, grooved on underside; jaw teeth small, conical, in 1 row on jaws, except partly 2 rows on top jaw, 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; front nostril tubular, rear nostril opens in mouth; pectoral fin minute, longer or shorter than wide, fin width 17-35% of gill opening; lateral line complete, lines of each side of head connected by 2 canals with across top of head.
Dark above, fading to paler below, a series of small pale spots above each lateral line pore of body, tail and gill area.
Reaches 77 cm.
Sandy bottoms, often on sandy beaches.
Depth range: 1-46 m.
N Carolina to the Gulf of Mexico.
High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
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- Marine
- Marine Only
- Inshore/Offshore
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- Inshore
- Inshore Only
- Water Column Position
-
- Bottom
- Bottom only
- Habitat
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- Beach
- Reef associated (reef + edges-water column & soft bottom)
- Sand & gravel
- Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
- Reef (rock/coral/oyster)
- Soft bottom only
- FishBase Habitat
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- Demersal
- Reef Associated
- Feeding Group
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- Carnivore
- Data
- Diet
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- Data
- Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
- Mobile benthic worms
- Egg Type
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- Data
- Pelagic larva
- Pelagic
- Global Endemism
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- Greater Caribbean endemic
- West Atlantic Endemic
- All species.
- Regional Endemism
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- Continental primarily
- GC endemic
- Extends North of GC
- Continent + Island (s)
- Island (s)
- All species..
- Continent
- Residency
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- Resident
- Climate Zone
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- Temperate (>35N)
- Tropical (10-23N, Nicaragua / Cuba)
- Subtropical (23-35N, Florida / Carolinas / Bermuda)
- IUCN Red List
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- Listed
- Least concern
- CITES
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- Not listed
- Length Max
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- 77
- Depth Range Min
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- 1
- Depth Range Max
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- 46
