Fish of the Ariosoma genus of the Bathymyrinae subfamily of the Congridae (conger and garden eels) family of the Congroidei suborder of the Anguilliformes (eels) order of the Elopomorpha superorder.
(Bandtooth conger. Photo by © Sacha Lobenstein. enelmar.es)
Bandtooth conger (Ariosoma balearicum) was first described in 1809 by the French botanist and ichthyologist François Delaroche (1781-1812).
It occurs at the depth of 1-732 meters, usually 20-100 meters. It inhabits the coastal part of the shelf, digs itself into burrows in the sandy bottom. The maximum recorded length is 35 cm. Specimens up to 25 cm long are more common. It is an opportunistic predator.
(Bandtooth conger. Photo by © Robert A. Patzner. fishbase.org)
It’s a permanent rare inhabitant of the Adriatic Sea. It is more common in its southern part, it never occurs in the extreme northern part.
Names of bandtooth conger (Ariosoma balearicum) in other languages are as follows:
Ngjale deti e baleareve (Albanian), Χελομούγγρι (Heljomungri) (Greek), Congrillo de charco, Congrio balear (Spanish), Grongo delle Baleari (Italian), Goldener Balearen-Meeraal (German), Konger białopłetwy (Polish), Congro-das-Baleares (Portuguese), Средиземноморская ариосома (Sredizemnomorskaya ariosoma) (Russian), Ugor zlatar (Croatian, Serbian), Balerik mığrısı (Turkish), Congre des Baléares (French), Úhořovec malý (Czech).