Shortbelly eel
Dysomma anguillare
- Usual depth60–2,876 m
- Water temperature18–29 °C
- Best monthsMarch, June, and October
- How commonRare
About this species
Dysomma anguillare, the shortbelly eel, stout moray, mustard eel or arrowtooth eel, is an eel in the family Synaphobranchidae. It was described by Keppel Harcourt Barnard in 1923. It is a marine, tropical eel which is known from the western Atlantic Ocean and Indo-Western Pacific, including the United States, Venezuela, South Africa, Zanzibar, and Japan. It lives at a depth range of 30 to 270 metres, and inhabits muddy sediments in coastal waters and large rivermouths. Males can reach a maximum total length of 52 centimetres (20 in).
Text from the Wikipedia article “Dysomma anguillare”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article
Where and when
Where it has been recorded
Worldwide
Loading the map
Best months
Worldwide (open data)
- January: 3 records
- February: 2 records
- March: 5 records
- April: 2 records
- May: 1 records
- June: 5 records
- July: 1 records
- August: 0 records
- September: 2 records
- October: 5 records
- November: 3 records
- December: 1 records
Depth and water temperature
Depth
Mostly recorded at 60–2,876 m · Deepest record: 2,958.5 m
Water temperature
Recorded in surface water of 18–29 °C
Names and classification
- English
- Shortbelly eel, Arrowtooth Eel, blind arrowtooth eel, Mustard Eel, shortbelly eel, Stout Moray
Names in 3 more languages
- Spanish
- anguila panzacorta
- Japanese
- Asabahoraanago, アサバホラアナゴ
- Simplified Chinese
- 前肛鰻, 合鰓鰻
Other scientific names: Dysomma anguillaris, Dysomma angustum, Dysomma aphododera, Dysomma japonicus, Dysomma zanzibarensis, Sinomyrus angustus
Similar species
- Kaup's arrowtooth eel
Synaphobranchus kaupii
- Parasitic eel
Simenchelys parasitica
- Grey cutthroat eel
Synaphobranchus affinis
- Abyssal cutthroat eel
Histiobranchus bathybius
- Shortdorsal Cutthroat Eel
Synaphobranchus brevidorsalis
Sources and credits
Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).
- Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
- Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
- Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
- 169 open-data records from 1936 to 2025.
- Species data updated October 26, 2026.
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