Spotted Cusk-eel
Chilara taylori

Physical Description

• Long, skinny, eel-like fish.
• Cream to brown in color with large dark spots all over.
• Rounded head and snout.
• Low dorsal (back) and tail fins. Pelvic (bottom) fins just two long, thin rays under eyes.
• Common length for adult about 12 inches; maximum length about 16 inches.
• Juveniles lack dark spots.

Range

• Found from Washington to Baja California, Mexico.
• Also found from Costa Rica to Ecuador and Galapagos Islands.

Habitat

• Live in mud, eelgrass, estuaries, mangroves, and rock rubble.
• Often burrow tail-first in sand, into mucus-lined holes.
• Found at depths of 0-920 feet.

Reproduction

• The female lays oval eggs that float in a single gelatinous mass.
• When the eggs hatch, they become planktonic larvae and planktonic juveniles for an extended time before settling as their adult stage on the seafloor.

Diet

• Shrimps, crabs, bony fishes, polychaete worms, small clams.

Predators

• California sea lions, cormorants, gulls, porpoises.

Interesting Facts

• They have smooth scales set at oblique (slanted) angles along their whole bodies, but no scales on their head.
• They are only active at night.
• Fossils show that this species was around in the Pliocene, 1.8 million years ago!

Sources: FishBase; DiscoverLife.org; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; CalCOFI; Mexican-Fish.com

Photo: Herb Gruenhagen