Pacific snake eel
species of fish
The Pacific snake eel (Ophichthus triserialis, also known as the spotted snake eel in the United States) is an eel in the family Ophichthidae (worm/snake eels). It was described by Johann Jakob Kaup in 1856, originally under the genus Muraenopsis. It is a marine, subtropical eel which is known from the eastern central and southeastern Pacific Ocean, including California, US, Peru, the Gulf of California, Mexico, the Galapagos Islands, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama. It dwells at a maximum depth of 155 metres (509 ft), and forms burrows in mud and sand sediments. Males can reach a maximum total length of 115 centimetres (45 in), but more commonly reach a TL of 80 centimetres (31 in).
The species epithet "triserialis" means "three-rowed" in Latin, and refers to the eel's spotted pattern. The Pacific snake-eel's diet consists of bony fish, shrimp and bivalves. It is frequently captured as a by-catch by shrimp trawlers, but is usually discarded.
Due to its wide distribution, lack of known threats, and lack of observed population decline, the IUCN Red List lists the Pacific snake eel as Least Concern.
“Pacific snake eel” enters the record as species of fish. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pacific, snake and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pacific snake eel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.