''Ilyophis blachei'' is an

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

in the family

Synaphobranchidae Cutthroat eels are a family, Synaphobranchidae, of eels, the only members of the suborder Synaphobranchoidei. They are found worldwide in temperate and tropical seas. Cutthroat eels range from in length. They are bottom-dwelling fish, found in ...

(cutthroat eels).''Ilyophis blachei''
at www.fishbase.org. It was described by Luiz Vieria Caldas Saldanha and

Nigel Merrett Nigel Robert Merrett (born 1940) is a British zoologist and ichthyologist and former director of the fish section of the British Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with na ...

in 1982.Saldanha, L., and N. R. Merrett, 1982 ef. 8423''A new species of the deep-sea eel genus Ilyophis Gilbert (Synaphobranchidae) from the eastern North Atlantic, with comments on its ecology and intrafamilial relationships.'' Journal of Fish Biology v. 21 (no. 6): 623-636. It is a

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

, deep water-dwelling eel which is known from the northeastern and southeastern

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and southern

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

. It dwells at a depth range , and inhabits the

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

. Males can reach a maximum

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish ...

of . ''I. blachei'' spawns in June and July.Spawning for ''Ilyophis blachei''
at www.fishbase.org. Its diet consists primarily of

galatheid The Galatheoidea are a superfamily of decapod crustaceans comprising the porcelain crabs and some squat lobsters. Squat lobsters within the three families of the superfamily Chirostyloidea are not closely related to the squat lobsters within th ...

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

References

Synaphobranchidae Fish described in 1982 Taxa named by Luiz Vieria Caldas Saldanha Taxa named by Nigel Merrett {{Anguilliformes-stub