The daggertooth pike conger (''Muraenesox cinereus'') also known as the darkfin pike eel in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, 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, 20 families, 164 genera, and about 1000 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 larg ...

. 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 is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

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

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) 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 th ...

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 east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

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. 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 language, Japanese: ) is based on rice with m ...

, 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 metropol ...

, ''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 Curing (chemistry), cured , a processed seafood product common in Japanese cuisine. It was initially made in the year 1115. Production and uses is made by forming various Purée, pureed deboned whitefish (fisheries term), whit ...

'' (fish cake). It is also frequently canned and exported to Asian markets.

Parasites

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

parasite Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted str ...

s. A species of trichosomoidid

nematode The nematodes ( or ; ; ), roundworms or eelworms constitute the phylum Nematoda. Species in the phylum inhabit a broad range of environments. Most species are free-living, feeding on microorganisms, but many are parasitic. Parasitic worms (h ...

which parasitizes the muscles of the fish off Japan has been described in 2014 and named '' Huffmanela hamo'', 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 1–2mm 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 '' Huffmanela hamo'' in muscles

References

External links

''Iron Chef'' Battle: Pike Eel
daggertooth pike conger Fish of the Indian Ocean Commercial fish daggertooth pike conger {{Anguilliformes-stub