ANIMAL SPECIES:Broadgilled Hagfish, Eptatretus cirrhatus (Forster, 1801)
Hagfishes eat mostly dead fishes and worms. They use their rasping teeth to burrow through the body wall or enter through the mouth, gills or anus of larger animals.
Hagfishes are able to produce large quantities of slime. These fishes can tie their bodies in a knot and then run the knot down the length of the body to remove slime.
Alternative Name/s
The Broadgilled Hagfish is also known as the New Zealand Hagfish.Identification
The Broadgilled Hagfish has an eel-like body that lacks scales. It has vestigial eyes, six barbels around the mouth and six or seven gill openings on the lower sides. The tail is paddle-like. There are rows of slime glands on the lower sides. Like other hagfishes, it lacks jaws but has a mouth lined with horny teeth.
It is grey to brown above and sometimes paler below. The gill openings have white borders.
Size range
The Broadgilled Hagfish grows to 83 cm in length.Distribution
The species occurs in temperate marine waters of southern and eastern Australia and New Zealand.
In Australia it occurs off southern Queensland to southern New South Wales.
Distribution by collection data
Biomaps map of Broadgilled Hagfish specimens in the Australian Museum collection.
Habitat
It is known from depths of 300 m to 700 m,
Behaviour and adaptations
Feeding and Diet
Hagfishes eat mostly dead fishes and worms. They use their rasping teeth to burrow through the body wall or enter through the mouth, gills or anus of larger animals.
Other behaviours and adaptations
Hagfishes are able to produce large quantities of slime. When the concentrated slime solution is ejected from the slime glands it mixes with seawater and expands to several hundred times its initial volume. A bucket of water can be turned into slime in a matter of minutes after the inclusion of a hagfish. These fishes can tie their bodies in a knot and then run the knot down the length of the body to remove slime.
Classification
- Species:
- cirrhatus (Forster, 1801)
- Genus:
- Eptatretus
- Family:
- Myxinidae
- Class:
- Myxini
References
- Fernholm, B. & Paxton, J.R. 1998. Hagfishes. in Carpenter, K.E. & V.H. Niem (Eds). FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. Volume 2. Cephalopods, crustaceans, holothurians and sharks. FAO, Rome. Pp. iii-vi, 688-1396.
- Fudge, D. 2001. Hagfishes: Champions of Slime. Nature Australia. 27(2): 61-69.
- May, J.L. & Maxwell, J.G.H. 1986. Field Guide to Trawl Fish from Temperate Waters of Australia. CSIRO Division of Marine Research. Pp. 492.
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A Broadgilled Hagfish caught off Coffs Harbour View full size
David Greenhalgh
© Australian Museum
Lateral view of a Broadgilled Hagfish View full size
David Greenhalgh
© Australian Museum
Lateral head view of a Broadgilled Hagfish View full size
David Greenhalgh
© Australian Museum
The mouth and barbels of a Broadgilled Hagfish View full size
David Greenhalgh
© Australian Museum
Gill openings of the Broadgilled Hagfish View full size
David Greenhalgh
© Australian Museum
The tail of the Broadgilled Hagfish View full size
David Greenhalgh
© Australian Museum
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