Madeira Canary Islands Azores – Fishes Dr. Peter Wirtz

Lizard fishes (Synodontidae)
Green lizard fish (Synodus saurus)
Up to 40 cm long. Madeira, Canary Islands, Azores. 1 – 400 m depth.
Lizard fishes are lurking predators. The two species in the area have divided the space between themselves:
The Green lizard fish lives mainly on sand and muddy bottom. It is greenish with blue lines and does not have
a black spot on the tip of the upper snout. Photo Peter Wirtz.
Brown lizard fish (Synodus synodus)
Up to 40 cm long. Madeira, Canary Islands. 1 – 400 m depth.
The Brown lizard fish mainly lives on rocky bottom and rubble, almost never on soft bottoms (where the
Green lizard fish lives). It lives on both sides of the Atlantic but not at the Azores (where only the Green
lizard fish can be encountered). It differs from the Green lizard fish not only in the colour of the body but also
by a small dark spot on the tip of the upper snout. Photo Peter Wirtz.
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Oar fishes (Regalecidae)
Oar fish (Regalecus glesne)
Up to to 11 m long. Madeira, Canary Islands, Azores. 0 – 1000 m depth.
The largest bony fish of the world (up to 11 m length!), it is a truly rare sight. It lives in the open sea and feeds
on krill, small fish and cephalopods. The first rays of the dorsal fin begin directly over the eye and are
brilliantly red. The ventral fins consist of a single, very long fin ray each. Oar fish may have given origin to