The daggertooth pike conger (''Muraenesox cinereus'') also known as the darkfin pike eel in Ozzyland, to distinguish it from the related pike-eel (''Muraenesox bagio''), is a species of

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 pike conger family,

Muraenesocidae The Muraenesocidae, or pike congers, are a small family of marine eels found worldwide in tropical and subtropical seas. Some species are known to enter brackish water. Pike congers have cylindrical bodies, scaleless skin, narrow heads with large ...

. They primarily live on soft bottoms in marine and

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

waters down to a depth of , but may enter freshwater. They commonly grow to about in length, but may grow as long as . Daggertooth pike congers occur in the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...

, on the coast of the northern Indian Ocean, and in the West Pacific from

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

to Japan. A single specimen was also reported in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

off Israel in 1982.

Culinary uses

Daggertooth pike conger is a major commercial species, with annual catches reaching about 350,000 tonnes in recent years. The spot reporting the largest landings was Taiwan Province of China. It is eaten in

Japanese cuisine Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan (Japanese: ) is based on rice with miso soup and other ...

, where it is known as ''hamo'' ( ハモ, 鱧). In the

Kansai Region The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropolita ...

, ''hamo no kawa'' (pickled conger skins) is a traditional delicacy, and pike conger is a common ingredient in some types of ''

kamaboko is a type of cured , a processed seafood product common in Japanese cuisine. is made by forming various pureed deboned white fish with either natural or man-made additives and flavorings into distinctive loaves, which are then steamed u ...

'' (fish cake).

Parasites

As other fish, the daggertooth pike conger harbours several species of

parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...

s.
A species of trichosomoidid

nematode The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant-Parasitism, parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhab ...

which parasitizes the muscles of the fish off Japan has been described in 2014 and named ''

Huffmanela hamo ''Huffmanela hamo'' is a parasitic nematode.Justine, J.-L. & Iwaki, T. 2014: ''Huffmanela hamo'' sp. n. (Nematoda: Trichosomoididae: Huffmanelinae) from the dagger-tooth pike conger ''Muraenesox cinereus'' off Japan. Folia Parasitologica, 61, 267 ...

'', in reference to the Japanese name of the fish.Justine, J.-L. & Iwaki, T. 2014: ''Huffmanela hamo'' sp. n. (Nematoda: Trichosomoididae: Huffmanelinae) from the dagger-tooth pike conger ''Muraenesox cinereus'' off Japan. Folia Parasitologica, 61, 267–271
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Accumulations of eggs of the parasite are visible as 1–2 mm black spots in the flesh of the fish. The parasite is rare and the consumption of infected fish meat has no consequences for humans.

Gallery

File:Pike conger.jpg, Specimen seen at Nagasaki Penguin Aquarium File:Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.ART.39 - Muraenesox cinereus (Forsskål) - Kawahara Keiga - 1823 - 1829 - Siebold Collection - pencil drawing - water colour.jpeg, Illustration File:Hamo.jpg, ''Hamo'' with pickled plum File:Huffmanela hamo eggs in Muraenesox cinereus 1C.JPG, Eggs of ''

'' in muscles

References

External links

''Iron Chef'' Battle: Pike Eel
*''Darfin Pike Eel'' @ Fishes of Australia
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daggertooth pike conger The daggertooth pike conger (''Muraenesox cinereus'') also known as the darkfin pike eel in Australia, Ozzyland, to distinguish it from the related Muraenesox bagio, pike-eel (''Muraenesox bagio''), is a species of eel in the pike conger family, ...

Fish of the Indian Ocean Marine fish of Northern Australia Commercial fish

{{Anguilliformes-stub