Bony fish · Perciformes · Anarhichadidae

Wolf Fish

Anarhichas lupus

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

The Atlantic wolffish — known in Spanish as pez lobo del Atlántico, pez lobo atlántico, pez lobo or perro del norte — is a fish of the family Anarhichadidae, which lives in the North Atlantic and the Arctic.

Size

60 cm – 1.5 m

Lifespan

20 years

Diet

Carnivore

Feeds mainly on other animals.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

OceanCarnivore Solitary Fish Ocean

17countries

Fun facts

It replaces its entire set of teeth every year, after breeding, and during that period it eats practically nothing.
Its blood contains antifreeze proteins that let it live in water below zero degrees.
The male guards the eggs, a mass the size of a football, for several months with hardly any food.
By crushing sea urchins it keeps their numbers down and helps stop them from stripping the kelp forests.
It makes antifreeze in its blood. Its antifreeze proteins allow it to live in waters below zero, the same solution the Antarctic fishes arrived at on their own.
Its teeth are a demolition tool: prominent canines at the front and crushing molars behind, with which it breaks the shells of bivalves, sea urchins and crabs.
It renews that entire set of teeth every year. After spawning it loses its teeth and grows new ones, a process during which it stops eating.
Unlike almost all fishes of the North Atlantic, it tends its clutch: the male guards the mass of eggs for months until they hatch.
Its flesh and skin have traditionally been put to use, and in Iceland the skin was tanned as leather.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (fish)
Habitat & environment: Rocky and gravel bottoms of the North Atlantic, from 20 to 500 m

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarhichas_lupus