''Conger'' ( ) is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of marine

congrid The Congridae are the family of conger and garden eels. Congers are valuable and often large food fishes, while garden eels live in colonies, all protruding from the sea floor after the manner of plants in a garden (thus the name). The family in ...

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 ...

s. It includes some of the largest types of eels, ranging up to 2 m (6 ft) or more in length, in the case of the European conger. Large congers have often been observed by divers during the day in parts of 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 ...

, and both European and American congers are sometimes caught by fishermen along the European and North American Atlantic coasts. The life histories of most conger eels are poorly known. Based on collections of their small

leptocephalus Leptocephalus (meaning "slim head") is the flat and transparent larva of the eel, marine eels, and other members of the superorder Elopomorpha. This is one of the most diverse groups of teleosts, containing 801 species in 4 orders, 24 families, ...

larvae, the American conger eel has been found to spawn in the southwestern Sargasso Sea, close to the spawning areas of the

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 ...

freshwater eels. "Conger" or "conger eel" is sometimes included in the common names of species of the family

Congridae The Congridae are the family of conger and garden eels. Congers are valuable and often large food fishes, while garden eels live in colonies, all protruding from the sea floor after the manner of plants in a garden (thus the name). The family i ...

, including members of this genus.

Description

Congers have wide mouths with sturdy teeth, usually a variant of gray or black in coloration. They have no scales. Their body weight can reach over 57 kilograms (125 lbs).

Species

* ''

Conger cinereus The longfin African conger (''Conger cinereus'') or blacklip conger, is an eel of the family Congridae, found in the Indo-Pacific oceans from the Red Sea and East Africa to the Marquesas and Easter islands, north to southern Japan and the Ogasa ...

'' Rüppell, 1830 (longfin African conger) * '' Conger conger'' (

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

, 1758) (European conger) * '' Conger erebennus'' ( D. S. Jordan & Snyder, 1901) (Anaconger) * '' Conger esculentus'' Poey, 1861 (grey conger) * '' Conger macrocephalus''

Kanazawa is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Overview Cityscape ...

, 1958 * ''

Conger marginatus ''Conger marginatus'', the Hawaiian mustache conger, is a species of conger eel described by Achille Valenciennes in 1850. References Fricke, R. (1999) Fishes of the Mascarene Islands (Réunion, Mauritius, Rodriguez): an annotated checklist, ...

Valenciennes Valenciennes (, also , , ; nl, label=also Dutch, Valencijn; pcd, Valincyinnes or ; la, Valentianae) is a commune in the Nord department, Hauts-de-France, France. It lies on the Scheldt () river. Although the city and region experienced a ...

, 1850 (Hawaiian Mustache Conger) * ''

Conger myriaster The whitespotted conger (''Conger myriaster'') (Japanese: ; ''ma-anago'') is a marine conger eel, widespread in the Northwest Pacific near the coasts of Japan, Korean Peninsula, and the East China Sea The East China Sea is an arm of the ...

'' ( Brevoort, 1856) (whitespotted conger) * '' Conger oceanicus'' ( Mitchill, 1818) (American conger) * ''

Conger oligoporus ''Conger oligoporus'' is an eel in the family Congridae (conger/garden eels).''Conger oligopo ...

, 1958 * ''

Conger orbignianus The Argentine conger (''Conger orbignianus'') is a conger of the family Congridae. It is widespread in the Western Atlantic ocean from Rio de Janeiro in Brasil to the Bonaelensis area in north Argentina. In the Eastern Atlantic it is known only a ...

, 1842 (Argentine conger) * '' Conger philippinus''

, 1958 * '' Conger triporiceps''

, 1958 (manytooth conger) * '' Conger verreauxi'' Kaup, 1856 (southern conger) * '' Conger wilsoni'' ( Bloch & J. G. Schneider, 1801) (Cape conger)

Formerly Included Species

* ''Conger anagoides'' Bleeker, 1853 (sea conger) - now '' Ariosoma anagoides'' * ''Conger auratus'' Costa, 1844 (bandtooth conger) - now '' Ariosoma balearicum''

Fishing

Fishing for congers is recorded in the 12th century. The Norman taxation Pipe Roll recorded two ''éperquerie'' on Guernsey and one on

Sark Sark (french: link=no, Sercq, ; Sercquiais: or ) is a part of the Channel Islands in the southwestern English Channel, off the coast of Normandy, France. It is a royal fief, which forms part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with its own set of ...

. These were designated places where congers were dried. One species of the conger eel, ''

'', is an important food fish in East Asia. It is often served as

sushi is a Japanese dish of prepared , usually with some sugar and salt, accompanied by a variety of , such as seafood, often raw, and vegetables. Styles of sushi and its presentation vary widely, but the one key ingredient is "sushi rice," also ...

Behaviour

Congers are

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

s and can attack humans. In July 2013, a diver was attacked by a conger eel in

Killary Harbour Killary Harbour or Killary Fjord () is a fjord or fjard on the west coast of Ireland, in northern Connemara. To its north is County Mayo and the mountains of Mweelrea and Ben Gorm; to its south is County Galway and the Maumturk Mountains. ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, at a depth of . The eel bit a large chunk from his face. The diver reported the creature was more than in length and "about the width of a human thigh".

References

External links

BOLDSystems: Genus Conger
Congridae Extant Eocene first appearances Taxa named by Lorenz Oken {{congridae-stub