The Congridae are the family of conger and garden eels. Congers are valuable and often large food fishes, while garden eels live in colonies, all protruding from the sea floor after the manner of plants in a garden. The family includes over 180 species in 32 genera.
Sander is a genus of predatory ray-finned fish in the family Percidae, which also includes the perches, ruffes, and darters. They are also known as "pike-perch" because of their resemblance to fish in the unrelated Esocidae (pike) family. They are the only genus in the monotypic tribe Luciopercini, which is one of two tribes in the subfamily Luciopercinae,
The superorder Elopomorpha contains a variety of types of fishes that range from typical silvery-colored species, such as the tarpons and ladyfishes of the Elopiformes and the bonefishes of the Albuliformes, to the long and slender, smooth-bodied eels of the Anguilliformes. The one characteristic uniting this group of fishes is they all have leptocephalus larvae, which are unique to the Elopomorpha. No other fishes have this type of larvae.
The daggertooth pike conger also known as the darkfin pike eel in Australia, to distinguish it from the related pike-eel, is a species of eel in the pike conger family, Muraenesocidae. They primarily live on soft bottoms in marine and brackish waters down to a depth of 800 m (2,600 ft), but may enter freshwater. They commonly grow to about 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in length, but may grow as long as 2.2 m (7.2 ft). Daggertooth pike congers occur in the Red Sea, on the coast of the northern Indian Ocean, and in the West Pacific from Indochina to Japan. A single specimen was also reported in the Mediterranean Sea off Israel in 1982.
The southern conger is a conger of the family Congridae, found in the eastern Indian Ocean and south-western Pacific Ocean, including southern Australia and New Zealand, at depths down to 100 m in broken rocky reef areas. Length is up to 2 m and weight may be up to 5 kg.
Leptocephalus is a genus that was used for species of larval eels, called leptocephali, that were thought to be new fish species, or whose adult eel species were not known. Leptocephali differ so much in appearance from their adults that the larvae and adults of eels are not easily matched, and when first discovered, leptocephali were thought to be a distinct type of fishes, but not eels. Because of this, the genus designation of Leptocephalus was used for a while for unidentified leptocephali even after it was known that these were the larvae of eels thus becoming a "wastebasket taxon", but this practice is no longer used. Examples of marine congrid larvae, found in the western Indian Ocean and the Red Sea that were named this way are listed below. Only two species in two families are currently treated as having any validity, though the validity of L. bellottii is strongly in doubt.
Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes, which consists of eight suborders, 20 families, 164 genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage and are usually predators.
Cynoponticus is a small genus of eels found throughout the Indo-Pacific. It is one of four genera in the family Muraenesocidae. It currently has three described species, which were formerly in the genus Muraenesox. Members are found in a wide distribution of the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific and Indian Oceans. They may be found in the west part of the Mediterranean Sea as well. They are nonguarders of their young.
Congresox is a genus of eels in the pike conger family, Muraenesocidae. It currently contains these species:
Gavialiceps is a genus of eels in the pike conger family, Muraenesocidae.
Oxyconger leptognathus, the Shorttail pike conger, is an eel in the family Muraenesocidae. It is the only member of its genus. It is found in the western Pacific Ocean from Japan to Australia.
The yellow pike conger is an eel in the family Muraenesocidae. It was described by Georges Cuvier in 1829. It is a tropical eel which migrates between marine and brackish waters, though not for breeding purposes. It is known from the Indo-West Pacific, including Sri Lanka, the Bay of Bengal, and Indonesia. It dwells at a maximum depth of 100 m, inhabits the soft bottoms of coastal waters and estuaries, and leads a nocturnal lifestyle. Males can reach a maximum total length of 80 cm, but more commonly reach 50 cm.
The Indian pike conger is an eel in the family Muraenesocidae. It was described by Pieter Bleeker in 1853. It is a marine, tropical eel which is known from the Indo-Western Pacific, including Somalia, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Taiwan. It dwells at a depth range of 800 to 875 metres, and inhabits soft sediments in coastal waters and estuaries. Males can reach a maximum total length of 250 centimetres (98 in), but more commonly reach a TL of 180 centimetres (71 in).
The red pike conger is an eel in the family Muraenesocidae. It was described by David Starr Jordan and Charles Henry Gilbert in 1882, originally under the genus Muraenesox. It is a marine, tropical eel which is known from the eastern central and southeastern Pacific Ocean, including Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Peru, and Nicaragua. It dwells at a depth range of 10 to 100 metres, and inhabits sediments of sand and mud. Males can reach a maximum total length of 202 centimetres (80 in); the maximum recorded weight is 11.0 kilograms (24.3 lb).
The Guayana pike-conger is an eel in the family Muraenesocidae. It was described by Edward Nathaniel Bancroft in 1831, originally under the genus Conger. It is a marine, tropical eel which is known from the western Atlantic Ocean, including Central America, the Caribbean and Brazil. It dwells at a maximum depth of 100 metres (330 ft), and inhabits muddy substrates in bays and estuaries. Males can reach a maximum total length of 150 centimetres (59 in), but more commonly reach a TL of 50 centimetres (20 in).
Gavialiceps bertelseni is an eel in the family Muraenesocidae. It was described by Emma Stanislavovna Karmovskaya in 1993. It is a marine, deep water-dwelling eel which is known from the southwestern slope of Madagascar, in the western Indian Ocean. It dwells at a depth range of 670 to 1,200 metres. Males can reach a maximum total length of 84 centimetres (33 in).
The duckbill conger is an eel in the family Muraenesocidae. It was described by Emma Stanislavovna Karmovskaya in 1993. It is a marine, deep water-dwelling eel which is known from the Indo-West Pacific, including northwestern Australia, Java, and Indonesia. It dwells at a depth range of 560–600 metres. Males can reach a maximum total length of 89 centimetres.
Gavialiceps taiwanensis is an eel in the family Muraenesocidae. It was described by Johnson T. F. Chen and Herman Ting-Chen Weng in 1967, originally under the genus Chlopsis. It is a marine, deep water-dwelling eel which is known from the northwestern Pacific Ocean, including Taiwan and Okinawa, Japan. It dwells at a depth range of 600 to 750 metres. Males can reach a maximum total length of 75.7 centimetres (29.8 in).
Congroidei is a suborder of eels in the order Anguilliformes. It contains five families:
Huffmanela hamo is a parasitic nematode. It has been observed in the muscles of the dagger-tooth pike conger Muraenesox cinereus, a muraenesocid marine fish off Japan. Its life-cycle is unknown.
