The Sailfin eel (''Paraletharchus pacificus'', also known commonly as the Pacific sailfin 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 ...

Common names of ''Paraletharchus pacificus''
at www.fishbase.org.) is an eel in the family Ophichthidae (worm/snake eels).''Paraletharchus pacificus''
at www.fishbase.org. It was described by Raymond Carroll Osburn and

John Treadwell Nichols John Treadwell Nichols (June 11, 1883 – November 10, 1958) was an American ichthyologist and ornithologist. Life and career Nichols was born in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Mary Blake (Slocum) and John White Treadwell Nich ...

in 1916, originally under the genus ''

Letharchus ''Letharchus'' is a genus of eels in the snake eel family Ophichthidae. It currently contains the following species: * '' Letharchus aliculatus'' McCosker, 1974 * '' Letharchus rosenblatti'' McCosker, 1974 (Sailfin snake-eel) * '' Letharchus ...

''.Osburn, R. C. and J. T. Nichols, 1916 (26 May)

ef. 15062 EF or ef may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Ef (band), a post-rock band from Sweden * ''Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two.'', a Japanese adult visual novel series by Minori, or its anime adaptations Businesses and organizations * Eagle Forum, an ...

''Shore fishes collected by the "Albatross" expedition in Lower California, with descriptions of new species.'' Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History v. 35 (art. 16): 139-181. It is a marine,

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

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 ...

(from which its

species epithet Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany) A botanical name ...

is derived), including Costa Rica,

, and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

.''Paraletharchus pacificus''
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 is known to dwell at a depth of , and inhabits rock and sand sediments. 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 . Due to its wide distribution, lack of known threats, and lack of observed population decline, the

currently lists the Sailfin eel as Least Concern.

References

Ophichthidae Fish described in 1916 {{Ophichthidae-stub