Slender Eelblenny: Lumpenus fabricii Reinhardt, 1836
An abundant and widespread eelblenny in Arctic seas
Size
- 36.5 cm (14.4 in)
- Usually not more than 25 cm (10 in)
Color & Characteristics
- Cream or light tan body with brown blotches and broken bars extending onto lower side
- Dorsal and anal fins not connected to caudal fin, anal fin rays not increasing in height posteriorly
- Counts of 62–64 dorsal fin spines, 1 spine and 39-41 soft rays in the anal fin, and 70–72 vertebrae distinguish this fish from snake eelblenny, L. sagitta, which has higher counts
Habitat
- Arctic-boreal
- Benthic, on mud to sand and rock substrates, often in algae
- Subtidal and to depth of 183 m, typically on inner shelf at depths < 50 m but rarely intertidal
- Near-bottom temperatures of -1.8° (Chukchi Sea) to 10.5°C (Bering Strait) and 13°C (White Sea)
Feeding
- Eats amphipods, copepods, other small crustaceans, fish eggs, polychaetes, oligochaetes, bivalve siphons, and lesser amounts of other foods including bryozoans and priapulids
- Eaten by halibuts, cods, sculpins, other bottom fishes, seabirds, and seals
Life cycle
- Spawns off west Greenland in July, in Kara Sea in October–November
- Lays its eggs among algae; 490 nearly ripe eggs found in a 164-mm Kara Sea specimen
- Attains 17 years of age
Page Author: CW Mecklenburg & TA Mecklenburg
Updated: March 5, 2011
