Hagfish Facts

Hagfish Facts

Comman Names: slime eels, or slime hags

1. It is found in the Atlantic Ocean.And it goes down to 4,000 feet.

2. Did you know a Hagfish can make a gallon of slime a day.Believe it or not it can choke on its own slime.

3. Jaws are absent.

4. Paired fins are generally absent.

5. Early species had heavy bony scales and plates in their skin. In most cases the skeleton is cartilaginous. The embryonic notochord persists in the adult.

6. Seven or more paired gill pouches are present.

7. Because females tend to produce large eggs in small numbers, their population sizes suggest a low death rate.

8. Diet is made up of marine worms and other invertebrates.

9. They have a ring of short sensitive tentacles around their mouths.

10. Large slime glands line their sides along the length of their bodies.

11. Can sneeze to clear slime from nostrils

12. No jaws. Instead they have two pairs of rasps on top of a tongue. They pull meat into their mouths with the tongue, then tear it off the prey with the rasps.

13. Hagfish have a very low metabolism. Once they eat, they may not have to again for up to seven months.

14. Although hagfish have a partial skull, they have no back bone, so are not true vertebrates. What skeleton they do have is made of cartilage.

15. Hagfishes are a marine group of deep-sea, cold-water scavengers.  They use their keen sense of smell to find dead or dying fish and invertebrates and rasp off flesh using their toothed tongue.

16. As they lack jaws, they gain leverage by knotting themselves and bracing themselves against whatever they’re pulling.

17. Hagfishes feed using two horny plates located either side of their tongue that are covered in sharp tooth-like structures.When the tongue is everted the plates are spread apart and when the tongue is retracted the plates come together and mesh.

18.; Hagfishes are considered the sister group of all vertebrates because they lack any trace of vertebrae.

19. They also have many other primitive characteristics including simple kidneys and only one semicircular canal on each side of the head.

20. Hagfishes are unusual in that they have body fluids, which are in osmotic equilibrium with the surrounding sea.  This is unknown in other vertebrates, but common in invertebrates.

21. They are also unusual in having a low pressure circulatory system that has three accessory hearts in addition to a main heart.

22. Hagfishes have a remarkable (and revolting) ability to generate enormous quantities of slime, which they do to defend themselves from predators.

23. A single individual can fill a bucket with slime.

24. Leather made of “eel skin” are sometimes made from hagfish.

25. Both ovaries and testes are present but only one is functional

26. Female lays large sausage shaped (2-3cm.) eggs, numbering 20-30.

27. Most fish, living or dead. Hagfish are the first fish to find their way to any dead animals which find their way to the seabed. They are parasitic on live fish, attaching themselves to the side and slowly eating their way through the fish. It has been known to find Cod with as many as 30 young Hagfish attached to them.

28. The Hagfish literally eats its prey from the inside out.  It uses it’s sandpaper like tongue to eat. It actually has no teeth to eat with.  It burrows into its prey to eat.

29. They are 30 to 63.5 cm in length.

30. Females are larger than males.

31. Common life span of Pacific hagfish in the wild is 40 years, and 17 years in captivity.

32. One of the most revolting behaviors of hagfish is the ability to produce large amounts of snot-like slime almost immediately. The slime is secreted as a defense mechanism from glands that line the sides of the body. Upon contact with seawater, the slime rapidly expands into a sticky gel that can sometimes suffocate an enemy.

33. Hagfish also have the ability to tie a knot in their body, and slide in and out of the knot. This can be used to escape predators, to burrow into a carcass, to gain leverage to tear off pieces of flesh, or clean itself of slime.