Marine Life - Conger Eel (Conger conger)
Ever been on a dive and seen something you didn’t recognise? The Marine Life pages might help you to recognise the wonderful organisms you have explored in the underwater realm. Read on to find information on such aspects as the feeding, breeding and physiology of some of your favourite marine flora and fauna.
The conger eel is a powerful, elongated fish, commonly seen by divers in Cornish waters. The skin is smooth, without scales, and typically grey-blue in colour on the top, and paler on the underside. The dorsal, anal and caudal fins are fused and form a single, continuous fin that covers about two-thirds of the eel’s body. Some individuals can reach 2 metres in length, and even longer specimens have been recorded. Divers are occasionally fortunate enough to see a free-swimming conger eel, but typically the head is all that can be seen as the eel looks out from its hiding place in rocky crevices or amongst wreckage. The head is broad, the mouth large, and distinctive tubular nostrils are evident on the snout. Conger eels hunt at night, the best time to see free-swimming eels, and feed on benthic fish and crustaceans with incredibly strong jaws. Despite their rather fierce reputation, congers are normally docile unless provoked.
Conger eels become sexually mature between the ages of five and ten years,
and spawn only once. Adult eels leave coastal waters and travel great distances
to spawn in the deep waters of the mid-Atlantic, their bodies undergoing
dramatic changes as they near the breeding grounds. They stop feeding and
lose all their teeth, the gut degenerates and gonads become greatly enlarged.
After spawning, the adults die, and the flattened, transparent larvae drift
back into coastal waters.
See More ..
Ballan Wrasse - Common Cuttlefish - Common Lobster - Cuckoo Wrasse - Dogfish - Jewel Anemone - Red Sea Fish
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