ATLANTIC HAGFISH

The Atlantic hagfish, scientifically known as Myxine glutinosa, is covered with special glands that can emit a sticky slime. In fact, a single hagfish can produce enough slime at one time to fill a milk jug. This has earned it the name "slime eel", although it is really not an eel at all. A hagfish will actually "sneeze" when its own nostrils fill with slime. Hagfish slime is different that any other natural slime secretion in that it is reinforced with tiny fibers. These fibers make the slime strong and difficult to remove. It is believed that the hagfish uses this slime to protect itself from predators. It can also be used to easily produce a protective cocoon for the hagfish. The hagfish has a trick for escaping this cocoon. Believe it or not, this animal can tie itself in a knot and then pass the knot down the length of its body to wipe the slime away.

The Atlantic hagfish has been called the nastiest and most disgusting litle creature in the sea. It is more closely related to some primitive creatures such as the lampreys. Hagfish have a long, eel-like body that averages 18 inches (about a half meter) in length, although it is believed that some of them can grow as long as 32 inches (nearly a meter). The hagfish is a scaleless fish with soft skin and thick barbels on the end of its mouth. Hagfish have a partial skull but no vertebrae, so they cannot technically be classified as vertebrates. They have no jaws and no bones. Their skeleton is made up entirely of cartilage. They have very poorly developed eyes located just under the skin and are almost blind. They do, however have finely developed senses of smell and touch which help them find food in the darkness of the deep sea. There are four small sensing tentacles near their mouth. They also have between 5 and 15 pairs of gills. Their colors can range from pink to brown to various shades of gray. Hagfish have a very primitive circulatory system that contains four hearts. One heart, known as the brachial heart, serves as the main pump, while the other three hearts serve as accessory pumps.

REPRODUCTION

Females lay up to 30 tough, yolky eggs. These eggs tend to stick together due to velcro-like attachments on the ends. Hagfish are often found curled around their eggs, but it is not know if they actually take care of the eggs with any type of brooding behavior. Hagfish do not go through a larval stage like their cousins, the lampreys. The newly hatched young are nearly perfect miniatures of their parents. The are all born hermaphroditic, but will change to either male or female as they develop. That have the ability to change sexes from season to season. Since local populations of hagfish tend to be quite large, as many as 15,000, it is believed that they have a low mortality rate.

COELACANTH

The coelacanths are rare order of fishes that includes two extant species in the genus Latimeria: the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) primarily found near the Comoro Islands off the east coast of Africa and the Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis). They are more closely related to lungfish, reptiles, and mammals than to the common ray-finned fishes. They are found along the coastlines of the Indian Ocean and Indonesia. Since there are only two species of coelacanth and both are threatened, it is the most endangered order of animals in the world.

 a preserved specie of coelacanth.

REPRODUCTION
Coelacanths are ovoviviparous, meaning that the female retains the fertilized eggs within her body while the embryos develop during a gestation period of over a year. Typically, females are larger than the males; their scales and the skin folds around the cloaca differ. The male coelacanth has no distinct copulatory organs, just a cloaca, which has a urogenital papilla surrounded by erectile caruncles. It is hypothesized that the cloaca everts to serve as a copulatory organ.

Coelacanth eggs are large with only a thin layer of membrane to protect them. Embryos hatch within the female and eventually are given live birth, which is a rarity in fish. This was only discovered when the American Museum of Natural History had dissected its first coelacanth specimen in 1975 and found it to be pregnant with five embryo. Matured coelacanths resemble the adult, the main differences being an external yolk sac, larger eyes relative to body size and a more pronounced downward slope of the body. The juvenile coelacanth's broad yolk sac hangs below the pelvic fins. The scales and fins of the juvenile are completely matured.

EDIBILITY

Coelacanths are considered a poor source of food for humans and likely most other fish-eating animals. Coelacanth flesh has high amounts of oil, urea, wax esters, and other compounds that are difficult to digest and can cause diarrhea. Their scales themselves emit mucus, which combined with the excessive oil their bodies produce, make coelacanths a slimy food. Where the coelacanth is more common, local fishermen avoid it because of its potential to sicken consumers.