Members: 6 genera; 2 families.
Region: worldwide.
Habitat: deep-sea, from 120 to 4900 metres.
ZoologyRay-finned fishes; eel-like.
Form: elongated.
Fins: caudal fin is lacking.
Food: slow-moving or sessile animals, molluscs, echinoderms, sea anemones.
Reproduction: leptocephalus larva that floats in the surface waters before transforming into an adult, like the true eels; larva are often larger than the adult.
TaxonomyNotacanthiformes is in Fishes of the World (2006) a suborder of
Albuliformes.
Families • Halosauridae
• Notacanthidae: Spiny eels.