Bermuda Catfish

Body moderately elongate. Mouth with fang-like teeth. Spinescent gill rakers on the first arch with 1 - 3 cusps and many small spines; the angular raker long and triple-rooted. Body entirely scaled at over 20 - 25 cm SL. Pyloric caeca 7 or 8. Color is grayish to copper brown; fins blackish at over 40 cm SL, yellowish with black tips in smaller specimens (the first dorsal fin with a black blotch on two anteriormost membranes); the buccal and branchial cavities are black. Pelvic fin reduced to one spine that becomes entirely absent in specimens more than 40 cm SL.

Probably spawns throughout the year in warmer seas.

Oceanodromous. Migrating within oceans typically between spawning and different feeding areas, as tunas do. Migrations should be cyclical and predictable and cover more than 100 km.

Dorsal spines (total): 18 - 20; Dorsal soft rays (total): 17 - 20; Anal spines: 2 - 3; Analsoft rays: 15 - 17

Found at continental slopes, around oceanic islands and submarine rises. Migrates to midwater at night. Feeds on fish, cephalopods and crustaceans.

Found at continental slopes, around oceanic islands and submarine rises (Ref. 6181). Meso-benthopelagic (Ref. 58302). Migrate to midwater at night (Ref. 6181). Feed on fish, cephalopods and crustaceans (Ref. 6181). Eggs and larvae are pelagic (Ref. 6766).

fisheries: subsistence fisheries; gamefish: yes; bait: usually