Anguillidae Rafinesque 1810

Angulo, Arturo, Betts, Joel T., González-Alemán, Néstor J., Castañeda, Edgar, Berghe, Eric Van Den, Elías, Diego J., Mcmahan, Caleb D. & Matamoros, Wilfredo A., 2023, Continental fishes of Nicaragua: diversity, distribution and conservation status; with an annotated and illustrated checklist of species and an identification guide to families, Zootaxa 5376 (1), pp. 1-89 : 15

Family Anguillidae Rafinesque 1810 ( Fig. 2I ). Freshwater Eels; Anguilas de Agua Dulce

Description: Body elongate, eel-shaped, more or less rounded in cross section; up to 150 cm in length; mouth reaching to under rear edge of eye, lower jaw slightly protruding; gill opening crescentic, lateral; scales minute, embedded and arranged in a basket-weave pattern; pectoral fins well developed; dorsal-fin origin well behind the pectoral fins; dorsal and anal fins continuous with the caudal fin (Nelson et al. 2016, Robertson & Van Tassell 2019). Distribution: Catadromous, tropical and temperate oceans except the eastern Pacific and southern Atlantic, and freshwater in coastal areas of eastern North and Central America (Nelson et al. 2016). One genus and one species in Nicaraguan freshwaters.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Families of continental fishes of Nicaragua, part 1; Carcharhinidae (A), Pristidae (B), Dasyatidae (C), Potamotrygonidae (D), Lepisosteidae (E), Elopidae (F), Megalopidae (G), Ophichthidae (H), Anguillidae (I), Engraulidae (J), Pristigasteridae (K), Dorosomatidae (L) and Cyprinidae (M). Illustrations adapted (with permission) from Nelson et al. (2016) and Angulo et al. (2021).