The pancake batfish (''Halieutichthys aculeatus'') belongs to the batfish family Ogcocephalidae. Their distributrition includes western Atlantic, North Carolina, northern Gulf of Mexico to northern South America. They inhabit a subtropical, sandy, reef-associated, and 45–820 m deep environment. They live on the bottom of the ocean, covered in sand. The fish are flat, resembling pancakes with a maximum size of ca. 10 cm. They feed on small snails, clams, crustaceans, scallops, worms, and occasionally on small fishes. Their eggs and larvae are pelagic and develop upon reaching the bottom. Two new species of ''Halieutichthys'' batfish were discovered in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, in the region directly affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The two species were named ''

Halieutichthys intermedius ''Halieutichthys'' is a fish genus in the family ''Ogcocephalidae Ogcocephalidae is a family of anglerfish specifically adapted for a benthic lifestyle of crawling about on the seafloor. Ogcocephalid anglerfish are sometimes referred to as ba ...

'' and ''

Halieutichthys bispinosus ''Halieutichthys bispinosus'' belongs to the batfish family Ogcocephalidae. It is native to the Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely sur ...

''.

References

External links

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Halieutichthys intermedius, the Louisiana pancake batfish. (with photo)
Ogcocephalidae Fish of the Atlantic Ocean Fish described in 1818 {{Lophiiformes-stub