Amblyopsis spelaea, Northern cavefish

You can sponsor this page

Amblyopsis spelaea DeKay, 1842

Northern cavefish
Upload your photos and videos
Google image
Image of Amblyopsis spelaea (Northern cavefish)
No image available for this species;
drawing shows typical species in Amblyopsidae.

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Percopsiformes (Trout-perches, pirate perches and cavefishes) > Amblyopsidae (Cavefishes)
Etymology: Amblyopsis: Greek, amblys = darkness + Greek, ops = shape (Ref. 45335).
More on author: DeKay.

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Freshwater; demersal; non-migratory. Temperate; 39°N - 37°N

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

North America: Indiana and Kentucky, U.S.A.

Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 11.0 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 5723); common length : 6.5 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 12193)

Short description Morphology | Morphometrics

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Dorsal soft rays (total): 9-11; Anal spines: 0; Anal soft rays: 8 - 11; Vertebrae: 29 - 30. Pink-white. No eyes (vestigial eye tissues under skin). Extremely small pelvic fins (rarely absent). Large, broad head. Caudal fin with 4-6 rows of papillae; 11-13 branched caudal rays.

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Blind and depigmented. Despite the lack of eyes it does respond to light and moves away from it (scotophilia). Inhabits subterranean water or caves which have consolidated mud-rock substrates in shoals and silt-sand substrates in pools but is more often found in caves with uniform silt-sand substrates (Ref. 34868). Has low reproduction rate and broods eggs in gill cavity for up to 4-5 months (Ref. 557; 34868; 27795). Can live for 2 years without food because of low metabolic rate (Ref. 5326). Top predator.

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Female incubates eggs in gill cavities (Ref. 7471).

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Romero, A. and L. Bennis, 1998. Threatened fishes of the world: Amblyopsis spelaea DeKay, 1842 (Amblyopsidae). Environ. Biol. Fishes 51(4):420. (Ref. 27795)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)

  Near Threatened (NT) ; Date assessed: 04 August 2012

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless





Human uses

Fisheries: of no interest
FAO - Publication: search | FishSource |

More information

Countries
FAO areas
Ecosystems
Occurrences
Introductions
Stocks
Ecology
Diet
Food items
Food consumption
Ration
Common names
Synonyms
Metabolism
Predators
Ecotoxicology
Reproduction
Maturity
Spawning
Spawning aggregation
Fecundity
Eggs
Egg development
Age/Size
Growth
Length-weight
Length-length
Length-frequencies
Morphometrics
Morphology
Larvae
Larval dynamics
Recruitment
Abundance
BRUVS
References
Aquaculture
Aquaculture profile
Strains
Genetics
Electrophoreses
Heritability
Diseases
Processing
Nutrients
Mass conversion
Collaborators
Pictures
Stamps, Coins Misc.
Sounds
Ciguatera
Speed
Swim. type
Gill area
Otoliths
Brains
Vision

Tools

Special reports

Download XML

Internet sources

AFORO (otoliths) | Aquatic Commons | BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes: genus, species | DiscoverLife | ECOTOX | FAO - Publication: search | Faunafri | Fishipedia | Fishtrace | GenBank: genome, nucleotide | GloBI | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | MitoFish | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | Socotra Atlas | Tree of Life | Wikipedia: Go, Search | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804):  PD50 = 0.6338   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00389 (0.00180 - 0.00842), b=3.12 (2.94 - 3.30), in cm total length, based on all LWR estimates for this body shape (Ref. 93245).
Trophic level (Ref. 69278):  3.4   ±0.39 se; based on food items.
Generation time: 5.5 ( na - na) years. Estimated as median ln(3)/K based on 1 growth studies.
Resilience (Ref. 120179):  Low, minimum population doubling time 4.5 - 14 years (K=0.20; low reproductive rate (Refs. 34868; 27795).).
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  Moderate vulnerability (37 of 100).