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Malacocottus aleuticus (Smith, 1904)

Whitetail sculpin
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Native range | All suitable habitat | Point map | Year 2050
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Malacocottus aleuticus   AquaMaps   Data sources: GBIF OBIS
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Image of Malacocottus aleuticus (Whitetail sculpin)
Malacocottus aleuticus
Picture by Bull. U.S. Bur. Fish.

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

Teleostei (teleosts) > Perciformes/Cottoidei (Sculpins) > Psychrolutidae (Fatheads)
Etymology: Malacocottus: Greek, malakos, = soft + Greek, kottos = a fish (Ref. 45335).
More on author: Smith.

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

Marine; benthopelagic; depth range 300 - 1000 m (Ref. 43939), usually 300 - 600 m (Ref. 50550). Deep-water

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

North Pacific: off southeastern Kamchatka and Sea of Okhotsk off southwest coast of Kamchatka, eastern Sakhalin Island, and Hokkaido, Japan. Also from the Bering Sea north of Rat Islands and Prince William Sound, Alaska.

Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 9.8 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 43939)

Short description Identification keys | Morphology | Morphometrics

Dorsal spines (total): 7 - 10; Dorsal soft rays (total): 13 - 15; Anal spines: 0; Anal soft rays: 10 - 13; Vertebrae: 31 - 32. Body minutely speckled with black; broad black bands from soft dorsal fin to anal fin and behind pectoral axil; caudal peduncle and fin white (Ref. 43939). Pelvic fins very small; caudal fin rounded (Ref. 43939).

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Collected from sand and broken shell bottom; also caught in pelagic environment (Ref. 43939).

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

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Mecklenburg, C.W., T.A. Mecklenburg and L.K. Thorsteinson, 2002. Fishes of Alaska. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, Maryland. xxxvii +1037 p. (Ref. 43939)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435: Version 2024-2)

Not Evaluated 

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless





Human uses

Fisheries: bycatch
FAO - Publication: search | FishSource |

More information

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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

Preferred temperature (Ref. 123201): 0.4 - 5.2, mean 2.8 °C (based on 118 cells).
Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804):  PD50 = 0.5625   [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):  3.3   ±0.1 se; based on size and trophs of closest relatives
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  Low vulnerability (10 of 100).
Price category (Ref. 80766):   Unknown.