Tube eels

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Tube eels
Earmark tube eel (Heteroconger hassi)

Earmark tube eel ( Heteroconger hassi )

Systematics
Subclass : Neuflosser (Neopterygii)
Subclass : Real bony fish (Teleostei)
Cohort : Elopomorpha
Order : Eel-like (Anguilliformes)
Family : Conger eels (Congridae)
Subfamily : Tube eels
Scientific name
Heterocongrinae
Günther , 1870

The tube eels (Heterocongrinae) are a subfamily of the conger eels (Congridae), which includes two genera and 35 species . Both genera differ in their mouth shape.

distribution

Tube eels occur in tropical shallow water regions with high currents in the Atlantic , Pacific , Indian and Red Sea at depths of 10 to 30 meters.

Way of life

They live in colonies of a few to thousands of animals, on sandy ground in tubes that they dig themselves with their hard, sharp digging tails. At the end of the tail there is also a gland that can secrete large quantities of a secretion that solidifies the tube walls and prevents the sand from trickling down. They stay with their abdomen constantly in the tubes, the front body sways back and forth when snapping at zooplankton .

If a predator or some other larger living being approaches, the whole colony slowly disappears into the ground even at a great distance. Tube eels are the only vertebrates that have an almost sessile , entrenched way of life.

Multiplication

Before mating, the neighboring males, still stuck in the tubes, threaten each other with wide open mouths. The pairing itself is described differently in the literature. According to Patzner and Moosleitner, the males leave the tubes and come to the females. Eichler and Myers write that the tube is never left and that only neighboring animals move towards each other through the sand, but that the abdomen always remain in their own tube.

In any case, the males wrap around the females so that the sexual openings are close together. The large eggs are released in this position. Larvae and fry are just as unknown as the formation of a colony.

The spotted tubular eel or earmarked tubular eel ( Heteroconger hassi ), which was only discovered in the 1950s, received its species name in honor of the Austrian diving pioneer and ichthyologist Hans Hass .

Genera and species

Magnificent tube eel
( Gorgasia preclara )
Lattice tube eels

literature

  • Robert A. Patzner, Horst Moosleitner: Mergus Sea Water Atlas Volume 6 , Mergus-Verlag, Melle 1999, ISBN 3-88244-116-X .
  • Dieter Eichler, Robert F. Myers: Korallenfische Zentraler Indopazifik , year publisher, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-86132-225-0 .

Web links

Commons : Tube Eels  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files