Family Ophidiidae

Ophidiidae

Taxonomy: Very large family with more than 230 species in 48 genera; 37 described species in 18 genera have been collected from Australian waters. Some genera are in need of revision. A revision of Australian species is needed.

Distribution, ecology and habitat: Worldwide on continental shelf and slopes, with the greatest diversity and dominance in deep subtropical and tropical regions; most benthic or benthopelagic, in a variety of habitats from holes and crevices on shallow reefs to abyssal depths in deep oceanic trenches to 8370 m, a few species pelagic or mesopelagic.

Characteristics:
Body moderately elongate, tapering; anterior nostril midway between upper lip and posterior nostril (immediately above upper lip in bythitids), teeth small, blunt, very close together; well-developed opercular spine usually present; supramaxilla present; rarely fewer than 7 long gill rakers on anterior gill arch. Dorsal fin long-based, origin anterior to anal-fin origin, dorsal fin-rays usually longer than opposing anal fin rays; dorsal, caudal and anal fins usually continuous; pelvic fins, is present, jugular, usually reduced to 1 or 2 short rays. Body scales smooth. Anus well-behind pectoral fins in most species.

Size: to 2 metres, but most species small to medium-sized.

Food and feeding: Highly variable amongst members of the family from large fish predators to small species feeding on worms and tiny crustaceans.

Reproduction and early life history: Oviparous with external fertilization, Little known of most species. Eggs pelagic, variable in size, some reported to be embedded in a buoyant gelatinous mass, others free floating. Larvae pelagic with no special vexillifer larval stage, small to large (8 mm) at hatching, elongate, laterally compressed with tapering tails (shorter and deeper in advanced larvae of deepwater species), gut folded, long-based dorsal and anal fins, reduced pelvic fins jugular. Gut variable, some species of the subfamily Neobythitinae have exterilium larvae with remarkably protruding and ornamented trailing guts. Size at settlement ranges from less than 20 mm to more than 65 mm.

Fisheries: Two commercially important genera, Brotula in tropical areas, and Genypterus in temperate waters of southern hemisphere; many other species caught as bycatch and occasionally marketed. Genypterus blacodes, a highly important commercial species throughout its range, is caught in demersal trawls, on auto-longlines, and as bycatch and in the rock lobster and giant crab fisheries.

Australian species:

References:

Cohen, D.M. & J G. Nielsen. 1978. Guide to the identification of genera of the fish order Ophidiiformes with a tentative classification of the order. NOAA Tech. Rep. NMFS Circ. No. 417: 1-72.

Fahay, M.P. & J.A. Hare. 2006. Ch. 49 Order Ophidiiformes: Aphyonidae, Bythitidae, Ophidiidae, p. 661, In W.J. Richards (ed). Early Stages Of Atlantic Fishes: An Identification Guide For The Western Central North Atlantic. CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL, 2640 pp.

Fahay, M.P. & J.G. Nielsen. 2003. Ontogenetic evidence supporting a relationship between Brotulotaenia and Lamprogrammus (Ophidiiformes: Ophidiidae) based on the morphology of exterilium and rubaniform larvae. Ichthyol. Res. 50(3): 209-220.

Gordon, D.J., D.F. Markle & J.E. Olney. 1984. Order Ophidiiformes, pp. 308-319 In Moser H.G., W.J. Richards, D.M. Cohen, M.P. Fahay, A.W. Kendall, Jr. & S.L. Richardson (eds). Ontogeny and Systematics of Fishes. Am. Soc. Ichthyol. Herpetol. Spec. Publ. No. 1. 760 pp.

Machida, Y. & O. Okamura. 1992. Revision of the bathyal fish genus Homostolus (Ophidiiformes, Ophidiidae). Jpn. J. Ichthyol. 38(4): 341-347.

Nielsen, J. 1999. Order Ophidiiformes: Families Carapidae, Ophidiidae, Bythitidae, Aphyonidae, pp. 1978-1985 In Carpenter, K.E. & V.H. Niem. Species identification guide for fisheries purposes. The living marine resources of the western central Pacific. Batoid fishes, chimeras and bony fishes part 1 (Elopidae to Linophrynidae). FAO, Rome.

Nielsen, J. G. 2002. Revision of the Indo-Pacific species of Neobythites (Teleostei, Ophidiidae), with 15 new species. Galathea Rept. 19: 5-104.

Nielsen, J.G., D.M. Cohen, D.F. Markle & C.R. Robins. 1999. FAO species catalogue. Volume 18. Ophidiiform fishes of the world (Order Ophidiiformes). An annotated and illustrated catalogue of pearlfishes, cusk-eels, brotulas and other ophidiirorm fishes known to date. FAO Fish. Synop. No. 125: i-xi + 1-178.

Nielsen, J.G. & J.-C. Hureau. 1980. Revision of the ophidiid genus Spectrunculus Jordan & Thompson, 1914, a senior synonym of Parabassogigas Nybelin, 1957 (Pisces, Ophidiiformes). Steenstrupia 6(10[= 11]): 149-169.

Nielsen, J.G. & N.R. Merrett. 2000. Revision of the cosmopolitan deep-sea genus Bassozetus (Pisces: Ophidiidae) with two new species. Galathea Rept. 18: 7-56, Pl. 1.

Nielsen, J.G. & Y. Machida. 1988. Revision of the Indo-west Pacific bathyal fish genus Glyptophidium (Ophidiiformes, Ophidiidae). Jpn. J. Ichthyol. 35(3): 289-319.

Okiyama, M. 1988. Ophidiidae, pp. 335-341 In  Okiyama, M. (ed.) An Atlas of the Early Stage Fishes in Japan. Tokai University Press, Tokyo, 1154 pp. [In Japanese]

Okiyama, M., J.M. Leis & D.S. Rennis. 2000. Ophidiidae (Cusk Eels), p. 108-112 In Leis, J.M. & B.M. Carson-Ewart. (eds). The larvae of Indo-Pacific coastal fishes. An identification guide to marine fish larvae. (Fauna Malesiana Handbooks 2). E.J. Brill, Leiden. 870 pp.