About Ariosoma balearicum (Delaroche, 1809)
The bandtooth conger (Ariosoma balearicum), also called the Baleares conger or Balearic conger, is an eel that belongs to the Congridae family, the family of conger and garden eels. It was first described by François Étienne Delaroche in 1809, and it was originally classified under the genus Muraena. This is a subtropical marine eel, found in the western and eastern Atlantic Ocean, the western Indian Ocean, and recorded locations include North Carolina (United States), the northern Gulf of Mexico, northern South America, Canada, Portugal, Angola, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Red Sea. It lives on reefs and littoral shelves, and burrows into sand and mud. It can be found at depths between 1 and 732 meters (3 to 2,402 feet), and is most commonly found between 20 and 100 meters (66 to 328 feet). Male bandtooth congers reach a maximum total length of 35 centimeters (1 foot 2 inches), and more commonly grow to a total length of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches). This species is only of minor interest to commercial and recreational fisheries.
