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Sixgill Hagfish
Eptatretus hexatrema
Eptatretus hexatrema, the sixgill hagfish or snotslang, is a species of marine fish in the hagfish family (family Myxinidae) of order Myxiniformes. It is native to the South Atlantic Ocean and southwestern Indian Ocean.
From the article Eptatretus hexatrema on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
Maximum recorded length 80.0 cm. Depth of body 15 times total length. Six gill openings. Colour slaty grey. Egg cases ovoid about 30mm long by 12mm wide with anchor filaments at each end. Eel shaped, with six barbels on the head around the mouth. Epatches form white spots under the skin. Two rows of slime pores under the body. No paired fins, mouth has no jaws but has two protrusible rows of horny teeth.
Range & habitat
Non-migratory marine demersal. Depth range 10 – 400 m, usually found between 10 and 45 m. Commonly burrows in muddy bottoms. Feeds mostly by scavenging on dead or disabled fish. Secretes large quantities of slime when provoked.
Wikipedia: “Habitat and behaviour”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Eptatretus hexatrema in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 100245.