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iNat·49249FamilyActinopterygii10,642 field observations
  1. Animals
  2. ›Chordates
  3. ›Vertebrates
  4. ›Ray-finned Fishes
  5. ›Tarpons, Eels, and Allies
  6. ›True Eels
  7. ›Congroidei
Snake Eels
Plate 1 of 9. (c) Steve Smith, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), uploaded by Steve Smith · via iNaturalist

Snake Eels

Ophichthidae

Ophichthidae is a family of fish in the order Anguilliformes, commonly known as the Snake eels. The term "Ophichthidae" comes from Greek ophis ("serpent") and ichthys ("fish"). Snake eels are also burrowing eels, they are named for their physical appearance, they have long, cylindrical snakelike bodies. This family is found worldwide in tropical to warm temperate waters. They inhabit a wide range of habitats, from coastal shallows and even rivers, to depths of above 800 m (2,600 ft)....

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2 branches of this family, most-observed first · about 368 known species

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Where it lives

Recorded sightings

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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.

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Every page naming Ophichthidae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →

This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 49249.