Monday 12 May 2008

HagfishHagfish, also referred to as blind eels, are found only in marine environments and feed mainly on dead fish. Despite being nearly blind, hagfish easily find food with their keenly developed sense of smell and touch. They have no jaws but with their rasping tongues, they burrow into carcasses and feed from within. Hagfishes have a skull of cartilage but lack jaws. They also lack vertebrae but have a notochord, which they retain in adulthood as a strong, flexible rod of cartilage. Hagfish give off large amounts of slime possibly to repulse other scavengers or to deter a potential predator. They are an unusual “fish” (disputed if fish) as they are hermaphrodites. They produce only sperm or eggs at any one season, but they can produce sperm one year and eggs the next.
No jaws
No complete eyes
No true stomach, and skin respiration in addition to gills
Marine scavengers
Capable of producing large amounts of mucus or slime
Spawn repeatedly throughout their lives and produce few large eggs each time
Bind, toothless ammocoete larvae typically burrow in the bed of silty streams
Many adults are parasitic on other vertebrates
Eel-like body without scales and without paired fins
No dorsal fin, only a confluent caudal fin this information was posted by diffrent type off fish.

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