Hydrolagus colliei
Spotted Ratfish
NS
G5
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Chondrichthyes (Cartilaginous Fishes)
Chimaeriformes (Chimaeras)
Chimaeridae (Shortnose Chimaeras)
Hydrolagus
Hydrolagus colliei (Spotted Ratfish)
Description
This species account was compiled from
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Characters
Body shape: elongated. This species is distinguished by the following characters: short and bluntly rounded snout; oral and preopercular lateral line canals not sharing a short common branch from the infraorbital canal; anterior edge of dorsal-fin spine non-serrated; anterior and posterior regions of second dorsal-fin considerably taller than the middle region; pectoral fins when depressed do not reach beyond to origin of pelvic fins; no anal fin; caudal-fin axis horizontal with the fin nearly symmetrical, epaxial
and hypaxial lobes equal sized; coloration brown or reddish brown with small white spots on head and trunk (Ref. 97389).
Distribution
Northeastern Pacific: west coast of North America from southwestern Alaska to Baja California, Mexico, including the Gulf of California, and Costa Rica.
Habitat Associations
Marine. bathydemersal. depth range 0-913 m.
Biology
Found near the bottom, from close inshore to about 913 m (Ref. 2850). Abundant in cold waters at moderate depths. Feed on mollusks, crustaceans and fishes (Ref. 37955); also echinoderms and worms (Ref. 28499). The spine can be dangerous and cause a painful wound (Ref. 2850). Fishers are reputed to fear the jaws of the ratfish more than they do the dorsal spine. Its flesh is edible but bland and leaves an unpleasant aftertaste (Ref. 28499). The liver was used as a source of machine oil (Ref. 28499).
Max length: 100.0 cm TL.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: internal (oviduct); nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none. Distinct pairing during copulation (Ref. 205). The female extrudes two eggs at a time (each contained in a capsule) and may take up to 30 hours to extrude all her egg cases, which then hang from her body on a long filament for another 4 to 6 days. The egg cases end up planted vertically in the mud or just lying with filaments entangled on the bottom. Females extruding egss can be found year-round (Ref. 28499).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2024-05-04. Resilience: Low (K=0.2-0.22; Fec=2).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: of no interest; gamefish; aquarium: public aquariums.
References
Eschmeyer, W.N., E.S. Herald and H. Hammann (1983) A field guide to Pacific coast fishes of North America. Boston (MA, USA): Houghton Mifflin Company. xii+336 p.
Allen, M.J. and G.B. Smith (1988) Atlas and zoogeography of common fishes in the Bering Sea and northeastern Pacific. NOAA Tech. Rep. NMFS 66, 151 p.
Armstrong, R.H. (1996) Alaska's fish. A guide to selected species. Alaska Northwest Books. 94 p.
Love, M.S., C.W. Mecklenburg, T.A. Mecklenburg and L.K. Thorsteinson (2005) Resource inventory of marine and estuarine fishes of the West Coast and Alaska: A checklist of North Pacific and Arctic Ocean species from Baja California to the Alaska-Yukon border. U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division, Seattle, Washington, 98104.
Angulo, A., M.I. López, W.A. Bussing and A. Murase (2014) Records of chimaeroid fishes (Holocephali: Chimaeriformes) from the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, with the description of a new species of Chimera (Chimaeridae) from the eastern Pacific Ocean. Zootaxa 3861(6):554-574.
Comments On Hydrolagus colliei