FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



155 



Figure 70. — American conger (Conger oceanica). A, adult, Connecticut; from Goode, drawing by H. L. Todd; B, 



"Leptocephalus" stage, 84 mm., Chesapeake Bay. 



Description. — The readiest characters by which 

 to distinguish the conger from other eels are noted 

 in the key (p. 150); notably the origin of the dorsal 

 fin above or only very slightly behind the tip of the 

 pectoral when the latter is laid back, the rather 

 long-pointed snout, the large mouth cleft back at 

 least as far as the middle of the eye, and the 

 scaleless skin. The conger has many more verte- 

 brae than the common eel and there are other 

 skeletal differences. 66 The conformation of the tip 

 of the snout likewise helps to identify the conger, 

 for its upper jaw usually projects beyond the 

 lower, whereas in the common eel the reverse is 

 true, or at least the lower equals the upper. Fur- 

 thermore, the eyes of the conger are oval anil 

 larger than the round eyes of the common eel. 



To give an idea of the proportions of the conger, 

 we need only add that the distance from tip of 

 snout to dorsal fin is about one-fifth of the total 

 length; the length of the snout is one-fourth that 

 of the head; the length of the pectorals is equal to 

 one-third to one-fourth of the distance from 

 dorsal fin to tip of snout; and that the body is of 

 the snake-like form characteristic of eels in general. 



Color. — Bluish gray or grayish brown above, 

 sometimes of a reddish tinge, sometimes almost 

 black; paler on the sides; dingy white below. 



Size. — This is a much larger fish than the com- 

 mon eel. The larger ones taken off southern 



New England and New Jersey are said to measure 

 4 feet up to 7 feet in length. The general run of 

 those caught weigh 4 to 12 pounds, the heaviest 

 we have seen weighed about 22 pounds. But 

 the North American species never attains the 

 enormous size reached by the European species; the 

 largest European conger reliably reported, of 

 which we have read, was 9 feet long, and weighed 

 160 pounds. 69 



Habits. — The depth range of the conger is from 

 close to the coastline (they are caught from the 

 dock at Woods Hole) out to the edge of the 

 continental shelf, the deepest record for it being 

 for one that we trawled at 142 fathoms off southern 

 New England, on the Albatross III, in May 1950. 

 It feeds chiefly on fish: butterfish, herring, and 

 eels have been found in their stomachs at Woods 

 Hole. They also prey on shrimps and small 

 mollusks at times. And we have caught them 

 (and have seen them caught) on crabs, on soft 

 clams (Mya), on sea clams (Mactra) and on cut 

 fish bait. 



It is now well established that the European 

 species (hence no doubt the American also) 

 breeds but once during its life and then perishes 

 like the common eel. Ripe congers are never 

 caught on hook and line, for they cease to feed, 

 hence to bite, for some time previous. But the 

 males of the European species, kept in aquaria, 



•• For an account of these, see Smltt (Scandinavian Fishes, vol. 2, 1898 

 pp. 1016-1017, 1037. 



■ Jenkins, Fishes of the British Isles, 1925, p. 275; see also Day, Fishes of 

 Great Britain, vol. 2 ,1884, p. 253, for large European congers. 



