''Gnathophis capensis'', the Southern Atlantic conger or southern conger, is an

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 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 in ...

(conger/garden eels).''Gnathophis capensis''
at www.fishbase.org. It was described by

Johann Jakob Kaup Johann Jakob von Kaup (10 April 1803 – 4 July 1873) was a German naturalist. A proponent of natural philosophy, he believed in an innate mathematical order in nature and he attempted biological classifications based on the Quinarian system. Kaup ...

in 1856, originally under the genus ''

Leptocephalus A leptocephalus (meaning "slim head") is the flat and Transparency (optics), transparent larva of 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 f ...

''.Kaup, J. J., 1856 ef. 2573Catalogue of the apodal fish in the collection of the British Museum. London. 1-163, Pls. 1-19. It is a

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

, marine eel which is known from the southeastern

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, including from

False Bay False Bay (Afrikaans: ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarc ...

Plettenberg Bay Plettenberg Bay, nicknamed Plett, is the primary town of the Bitou Local Municipality in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. According to the census of 2001, the town had a population of 29,149. It was originally named Bahia Formosa ("Be ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and also on

Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcano, volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is one of three constituent parts of the British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascensi ...

Island. It is known to dwell at a depth of 100 metres. Males can reach a maximum

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish measured f ...

of . The Southern conger is preyed upon by '' Chelidonichthys queketti'', '' Helicolenus dactylopterus'', and '' Sphyrna zygaena''. Its own diet consists of

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning "the depths". ...

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

s.Food items reported for ''Gnathophis capensis''
at www.fishbase.org.

References

capensis Fish of South Africa Fauna of Tristan da Cunha Taxa named by Johann Jakob Kaup Fish described in 1856 {{Anguilliformes-stub