''Venefica tentaculata'' 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

Nettastomatidae Nettastomatidae, the duckbill eels or witch eels are a family of eels. The name is from Greek ''netta'' meaning "duck" and ''stoma'' meaning "mouth". Duckbill eels are found along the continental slopes of tropical and temperate oceans worldwid ...

(duckbill/witch eels).''Venefica tentaculata''
at www.fishbase.org. It was described by

Samuel Garman Samuel Walton Garman (June 5, 1843 – September 30, 1927), or "Garmann" as he sometimes styled himself, was a naturalist/zoologist from Pennsylvania. He became noted as an ichthyologist and herpetologist. Biography Garman was born in Indian ...

in 1899.Garman, S., 1899 (Dec.) ef. 1540''The Fishes. In: Reports on an exploration off the west coasts of Mexico, Central and South America, and off the Galapagos Islands ... by the U. S. Fish Commission steamer "Albatross," during 1891 ...'' No. XXVI. Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology v. 24: Text: 1-431, Atlas: Pls. 1-85 + A-M. 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 * ...

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...

eel which is known from the eastern central and northwestern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, including

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It dwells at a depth range of , but may dive even deeper. 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 . Due to the relatively wide distribution of this species, and the estimated unlikelihood of major threats, due to its deep water habitat, the

IUCN redlist The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

currently lists ''V. tentaculata'' as Least Concern.

References

Nettastomatidae Fish described in 1899 {{Anguilliformes-stub