Hagfish

Hagfish images (Myxini or Hyperotreti) - stock photos & facts showing this marine craniate that produces slime

Scientific classification | Kingdom: Animalia > Phylum: Chordata > Subphylum: Vertebrata > Superclass: Cyclostomata > Class: Myxini > Order: Myxiniformes > Family: Myxinidae > Genera: Rubicundus, Eptatretus, Myxine, Nemamyxine, Neomyxine, Notomyxine

The hagfish is an eel-like fish that has a skeleton entirely made of cartilage,...
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Hagfish images (Myxini or Hyperotreti) - stock photos & facts showing this marine craniate that produces slime

Scientific classification | Kingdom: Animalia > Phylum: Chordata > Subphylum: Vertebrata > Superclass: Cyclostomata > Class: Myxini > Order: Myxiniformes > Family: Myxinidae > Genera: Rubicundus, Eptatretus, Myxine, Nemamyxine, Neomyxine, Notomyxine

The hagfish is an eel-like fish that has a skeleton entirely made of cartilage, without bones or a jaw. It has no scales and is identified by the fin-like fold running around its tail and lower body. Hagfish have lipless mouths, tongues with horny rasps, and barbel on either side of the nostrils. It inhabits muddy bottoms, and its coloration tends to mimic the habitat it lives in. Hagfish average about 18 inches long and reproduce by laying up to 30 eggs on the muddy bottoms.

Believed to be a scavenger, hagfish lie in the mud with its snout above the surface, and as it is blind, uses its nostrils to identify dead or disabled fish to feed upon. It is noted for its habit of entering the body of a dead or disabled fish and eviscerating it from the inside out. Hagfish can also produce copious amounts of slime when agitated, to help them extract themselves from predators or from inside their prey. They excrete the micro-fibrous slime which expands into a gelatinous mass. Hagfish tie themselves into a knot which they travel down from head to tail to remove the slime from their bodies, and they use a reverse knot, from tail to head, to anchor themselves to help in tearing flesh from their prey.

The most common species of hagfish is Myxine glutinosa, but there are about 60 identified species, including the Pacific hagfish, Eptatretus stoutii, which is also known as the slime eel.
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