Fish of the Apterichtus genus of the Ophichthinae subfamily of the Ophichthidae (snake eels) family of the Congroidei suborder of the Anguilliformes (eels) order of the Elopomorpha superorder.
(European finless eel. Photo by © Mario Pesce. mariopesct.com; flickr.com/photos/pescemario)
European finless eel (Apterichtus caecus) was first described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778).
It occurs at the depth of 1-85 meters, usually 10-40 meters. It hides in small burrows in the sandy, argillaceous and muddy bottom. The maximum recorded length is 60 cm. It is a bottom-feeder.
(European finless eel. Photo by © Juancar Dieguez. biodiversidadvirtual.org)
It is a permanent rare inhabitant of the Adriatic Sea. The species is poorly studied.
Names of European finless eel (Apterichtus caecus) in other languages are as follows:
Serpetу (Spanish), Biscia di mare cieca (Italian), Europäischer Schlangenaal (German), Congrinho da areia (Potuguese), Zmija dugonoska (Croatian, Serbian), Anguille-serpent aptère (French), Hadař bezploutvý (Czech).