Animalia > Chordata > Perciformes > Anarhichadidae > Anarrhichthys > Anarrhichthys ocellatus

Anarrhichthys ocellatus (northern wolffish; Wolf-eel; Doctorfish)

Synonyms: Anarhichas ocellatus; Anarhichthys ocellatus; Anarrhichas felis; Anarrhichthys felis; Anarrichthys ocellatus
Language: Danish; German; Haida; Mandarin Chinese; Russian; Tsimshian

Wikipedia Abstract

The wolf eel (Anarrhichthys ocellatus) is a member of the family Anarhichadidae together with the wolffishes of the genus Anarhichas. The wolf eel is monotypic within the genus Anarrhichthys. This superficially eel-like fish feeds on crustaceans, sea urchins, mussels, clams and some fishes, crushing them with its strong jaws. It can grow to be 203 cm (80 in), 18.6 kg (41 lb), and is found in the northern Pacific Ocean, ranging from the Sea of Japan and the Aleutian Islands to southern California. The wolf eel makes its home on rocky reefs or stony bottom shelves from shallow to moderate depths, picking a territory in a crevice, den or lair in the rocks and usually lives there for about 25 years.
View Wikipedia Record: Anarrhichthys ocellatus

Attributes

Nocturnal [1]  Yes
Water Biome [1]  Benthic, Coastal
Diet [1]  Carnivore

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve II 366714 British Columbia, Canada
Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Reserve 293047 British Columbia, Canada  
Pacific Rim National Park Reserve II 137900 British Columbia, Canada

Prey / Diet

Dendraster excentricus (Sand dollar)[2]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Amphistichus argenteus (Barred surfperch)1

Predators

Anoplopoma fimbria (Skil)[3]
Oncorhynchus tshawytscha (chinook salmon or king salmon)[3]
Phoca vitulina (Harbor Seal)[3]

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Gyrodactylus corti[3]

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
2"Diet and behavioral aspects of the wolf-eel Anarrhichthys ocellatus, on sandy bottom in Monterey Bay, California", Hulberg, L. W., Graber, P., California Fish and Game 1980 Vol. 66 No. 3 pp. 172-177
3Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0