Cusk-eels
Ophidiidae
The cusk-eel family, Ophidiidae, is a group of marine bony fishes in the order Ophidiiformes. The scientific name is from the Greek ophis meaning "snake", and refers to their eel-like appearance. However, they can be distinguished from true eels of the order Anguilliformes by their ventral fins, which are developed into a forked barbel-like organ below the mouth in the cusk-eels; in the true eels by contrast they are never well-developed and usually missing entirely.
3 branches of this family, most-observed first · about 280 known species
Ophidiinae
subfamilyOphidiinae
Assfishes
subfamilyNeobythitinae
Prickle Cusk-eels
subfamilyBrotulotaeniinae
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Ophidiidae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 85466.