Merret's snailfish (''Careproctus merretti''), also called the snakehead snailfish, is a species of fish in the family

Liparidae The Liparidae, commonly known as snailfish or sea snails, are a family of marine scorpaeniform fishes. Widely distributed from the Arctic to Antarctic Oceans, including the oceans in between, the snailfish family contains more than 30 genera ...

Etymology

It is named for the British

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...

Nigel Merrett (born 1940).

Description

Merret's snailfish is silvery-pink in colour, with a black peritoneum. Its maximum length is . It has 69 vertebrae. Its hypural plate (expanded ends of the hypurals that form a wide, fan-like plate onto which the caudal fin rays are attached) is single, and there are no epurals.

Habitat

Merret's snailfish lives in the

Porcupine Abyssal Plain The Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) is located in international waters, adjacent to the Irish continental margin. The PAP lies beyond the Porcupine Bank's deepest point and is southwest of it. It has a muddy seabed, with scattered abyssal hills ...

; it is

bathydemersal Demersal fish, also known as groundfish, live and feed on or near the bottom of seas or lakes (the demersal zone).Walrond Carl . "Coastal fish - Fish of the open sea floor"Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Updated 2 March 2009 They occ ...

and non-migratory, living at depths of up to .

References

Careproctus Fish described in 1988 Taxa named by Anatoly Andriyashev Taxa named by Natalia Vladimirovna Chernova {{Rayfinned-fish-stub