hagfish

Eel-like marine fish. Hagfish are virtually blind and jawless, with slit mouths surrounded by four pairs of tentacles. They attack other fish, usually those which are dead or dying, and rasp away all the flesh with their powerful, tooth-studded tongues, leaving only the skeleton of their prey. When not seeking food they burrow in mud at the bottom of the sea.

They occur in the temperate seas of both northern and southern hemispheres. The species of the genus Heptatretus inhabit the north Pacific and the seas off New Zealand, South Africa and Chile. Hagfish have 150 slime glands along their sides. If a hagfish is placed in a five-gallon/23-litre bucket of water and then subjected to stress, most of the water will be converted to slime within minutes.

Classification Hagfish are in the order Myxiniformes, class Myxini, superclass Agnatha.