Slender Eelblenny

Cream or light tan body with brown blotches and broken bars extending onto lower side; Dorsal and anal fins not connected to caudal fin, anal fin rays not increasing in height posteriorly; Counts of 62-64 dorsal fin spines, 1 spine and 39-41 soft rays in the anal fin, and 70-72 vertebrae distinguish this fish from snake eelblenny, L. sagitta, which has higher counts

Spawns off west Greenland in July, in Kara Sea in October-November; Lays its eggs among algae; 490 nearly ripe eggs found in a 164-mm Kara Sea specimen; Attains 17 years of age

Arctic-subarctic; Benthic, on mud to sand and rock substrates, often in algae; subtidal and to depth of 183 m (600 ft), typically on inner shelf at depths < 50 m but rarely intertidal; Near-bottom temperatures of -1.8° (Chukchi Sea) to 10.5°C (Bering Strait) and 13°C (White Sea)

Eats amphipods, copepods, other small crustaceans, fish eggs, polychaetes, oligochaetes, bivalve siphons, and lesser amounts of other foods including bryozoans and priapulids; Eaten by halibuts, cods, sculpins, other bottom fishes, seabirds, and seals