Saddled Eelpout: Lycodes mucosus (Richardson, 1855)
Distinctive-looking eelpout distributed primarily in Arctic Alaska and Canada
Size
- To about 49 cm
Color & Characteristics
- Reddish brown and white, with 5–7 broad bands on body extending onto vertical fins
- Some brown bands U- or Y-shaped
- White areas fill in with brown, and dark bands become less distinct as fish grow
- Scales absent or weakly developed, limited to posterior half of body
Distribution & Habitat
- Arctic species
- Not found south of Ungava Bay–Hudson Strait and northern Bering Sea
- Benthic, on various substrates from mud to shell hash and gravel
- Lives in burrows in the mud under sea ice in the Canadian high Arctic archipelago
- Usually found shallower than 80 m, reported range 1.5–180 m
Feeding
- Diet includes mysids, copepods, ostracods, polychaetes and other bottom-dwelling organisms
- Predators likely include cods and flatfishes, as for other Lycodes species
Life cycle
- Little studied
- Eggs and larvae demersal, not often found in plankton
Taxonomy
- The relationship of Lycodes knipowitschi Popov, 1931, endemic to the northern Sea of Okhotsk, to L. mucosus requires further study
Page Author: CW Mecklenburg & TA Mecklenburg
Updated: March 5, 2011