Large wolf eels are curious and are rarely aggressive, but are capable of inflicting painful bites on humans. Ecology Distribution Ī pair of wolf eel with eggs (pale yellowish) The eggs will hatch after 91 to 112 days and during this period, in order to ensure correct circulation of water around the eggs to keep them supplied with oxygen, the female periodically massages and rotates them as they develop. They both equally protect their eggs and only one at a time leaves the cave to feed. Later, they coil around them and use her body to shape the eggs into a neat sphere roughly the size of a grapefruit, the male then coils around her to add an extra layer of protection. The male puts his head against the female's abdomen and wraps around her, while she extrudes the eggs (she can lay up to 10,000 at a time) which he then fertilizes. They reproduce from October until the end of winter starting from when they are around seven years old. They have a monogamous relationship and tend to mate for life and live in the same cave. The lifespan of this species is about 20 years. Males have large lips and a protuberance on the superior part of the head. It has no pelvic fins, nor a lateral line. It only has one dorsal fin, that extends from the head to the end of the body, with 228 to 250 flexible fishbones without soft radius. In the anal fin, it has no rays and 233 radials. They possess powerful jaws with which they crush their prey: canine teeth in the front and molars in the posterior portion of the mouth. Once older they turn grey, brown greyish or dark olive. Younger wolf eels are orange with big dark spots in the posterior part of the body. The animal can grow up to 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) in length and 18.4 kg (41 lb) in weight. ocellatus differs from true eels, as they have paired gill slits and pectoral fins. Retrieved May 24 th, 2011, from eel at the Dallas Children's Aquarium Description Ī. Retrieved May 24 th, 2011 from Zaheer Kanji (December 2001). Pacific fishes of Canada Fisheries Research Board of Canada. Young and Mature Wolf Eel photo kindly provided by Erik Schauff The parents will closely guard their offspring for a period of around sixteen weeks, until at last they hatch. Females can produce up to an astounding ten thousand eggs at once. The male will court his female first by bumping his head up against her abdomen, then enveloping her entirely with his long slender body. These creatures seek out their partners at four years of age, but will not reproduce until around seven. Wolf Eels are unique in the way they go about their lives because (despite how they may initially appear) they are in fact quite the romantics- they mate for life. Its jaw is designed especially for mowing down on hard-shelled creatures such as crustaceans, mussels, clams, sea urchins, snails, and some other fish.Īlthough full-grown Wolf Eels have next to no predators (save the occasional harbor seal), their eggs often fall prey to rockfish and Kelp Greenlings. The Wolf Eel is a rather intimidating-looking carnivore, adapted perfectly to suit its murky environment. The deepest a Wolf Eel has ever been uncovered is 225 meters below the surface. It tends to keep to shallow to medium depth waters, making its home in the hollows between rocks, which oftentimes look as though they would not be able to fit its wide head. The Wolf Eel has been found to live anywhere from Japan to the islands of Racerocks off of British Columbia’s coast. The wolf eel’s dorsal fin extends from its head to the tip of its sleek body its pectoral fins, located at the base of the head, are large and rounded. Juveniles are a startling orange marked with dark orange splotches. It is easy to differentiate between male and female wolf eels the males tend to have larger, more grotesque heads, whereas the females possess a smaller jaw and are often darker in colour. These dots may differ in size and colour depending on the individual and its gender, and are frequently surrounded by a light ring. The adult Wolf Eel ranges from light brown to dark gray in colour, with a long, dot-covered body. Sometimes referred to as the “Ugly old man of the sea,” the Wolf Eel has a bulbous head with a strong jaw and sharp teeth.
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