The red pike conger (''Cynoponticus coniceps'', also known as the conehead eel in

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 Guate ...

) 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

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 ...

(pike congers).''Cynoponticus coniceps''
at www.fishbase.org. It was described by David Starr Jordan and

Charles Henry Gilbert Charles Henry Gilbert (December 5, 1859 in Rockford, Illinois – April 20, 1928 in Palo Alto, California) was a pioneer ichthyologist and fishery biologist of particular significance to natural history of the western United States. He col ...

in 1882, originally under the genus ''

Muraenesox Muraenesox is a small genus of eels found throughout the Indo-Pacific. It currently has two described species as most species have been moved to other genera. Members are found in the Indo-West Pacific. Species * ''Muraenesox bagio The commo ...

''.Jordan, D. S. and C. H. Gilbert, 1882 (6 Apr.)

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''Descriptions of thirty-three new species of fishes from Mazatlan, Mexico.'' Proceedings of the United States National Museum v. 4 (no. 237): 338-365. 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 * ...

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

eel which is known from the eastern central and southeastern

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 contine ...

, including Mexico,

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, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala,

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by ...

, Honduras,

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Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

, and

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

.''Cynoponticus coniceps''
at 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 biolog ...

. It dwells at a depth range of , and inhabits sediments of sand and mud. 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 ; the maximum recorded weight is . The Red pike conger's diet consists of

finfish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of l ...

and invertebrates.Food items reported for ''Cynoponticus coniceps''
at www.fishbase.org. It is of commercial interest to fisheries, and is considered to have high quality flesh. It is also captured as a by-catch by shrimp trawlers. The

currently lists the Red pike conger as Data Deficient, due to a lack of information on how the species is affected by fishing activities.

References

Muraenesocidae Fish described in 1882 {{Anguilliformes-stub