Gulper Eel Facts

Most of us are familiar with eels that are snake-like fish with elongated bodies. There are many different types of eels that are found in both freshwater as well as seawater. The gulper eel is one of the eel-like fish that is usually found in deep seas. They are not true eels and are not related to the order of true eels, Anguilliformes. Gulper eels belong to the order Saccopharyngiformes and family Eurypharyngidae. In fact, this eel (Eurypharynx pelecanoides) is the single member of the genus Eurypharynx.

Interesting Facts about Gulper Eels

Gulper eels are deep-sea creatures that are found in tropical and temperate oceans. These fish are usually found at a depth of around 3000 to 26,200 feet. Occasionally, they are found to travel to the surface and may sometimes shift to rivers, as they find it difficult to locate food in their natural habitat. Gulper eels resemble true eels in looks, as they have a snake-like body structure. But, unlike eels, they have a long and thin tail, which helps them in locomotion. In fact, its tail is so long that, it sometimes gets knotted. Gulper eels have almost no pectoral fins and are blackish or dark green in color. But, the characteristic feature of these deep ocean fish is their loosely hinged mouth, which is very big and wide. This enormous mouth is bigger in proportion to its body. The lower jaw has a big pouch-like structure, where they can deposit their prey. It is due to this pouch-like structure that this fish is also called pelican eel. It is also known as umbrella mouth gulper and even this name is derived from their giant mouth. The following are some of the amazing umbrella mouth gulper eel facts.

• These eels have big mouths that can be opened wide enough to swallow animals that are much bigger than this eel. In fact, the length of its jaws is almost one-fourth of the body length (around one meter).
• Even the stomach of gulper eel is stretchable and is fit for holding large amount of food. However, this fish is mostly found to feed on small crustaceans, in spite of having a big mouth and stretchable stomach.
• Even though, gulper eels have big mouth, their teeth are small and this indicates that they are not intended to prey upon large animals, regularly. Apart from crustaceans, gulper eel diet includes fish, seaweed, cephalopods, such as squids and octopus, etc.
• The mouth of this eel acts like a net, as it swims into large groups of small fish, shrimp, etc. Their wide open mouth fills with food as well as water. The water is slowly released through the gill slits.
• As in case of the teeth, even the eyes of this deep-sea creature are too small. Expert opinion is that their eyes are meant for detection of lights rather than formation of images.
• This fish has a tiny light producing organ at the tip of their tail. This organ called photophore, has numerous tentacles and can glow pink, through a process called bioluminescence.
• This light producing organ can also produce red flashes, occasionally. These red flashes are used to attract prey, as they keep their tail tip near their wide open mouth, so that they can swallow fish and other organisms that move towards the light source.
• Even though, very little is known about gulper eel reproduction, it is said that mature males have bigger eyes and olfactory organs, as compared to females, who do not change much, as they become sexually mature. It is with the help of these olfactory organs that males sense the pheromones released by the females. It is also said that after reproduction, this fish die.

This was a brief overview about gulper eel. Very little is known about this fish, as of now. This is because of the fact that these creatures are difficult to locate, as they live in deep seas. However, they have some very interesting and amazing features.