Small-sized eels of the Tropical Conger, Ariosoma scheelei, appear to be common in shallow Indo-Pacific tropical sheltered-bay and lagoon-type habitats when they are sampled appropriately and their larvae are abundant offshore of these areas, but little is known about their biology. Collections of about 7800 likely A. scheelei larvae in May 1997 using a 2-mm mesh 70 m² mouth-opening trawl with a multiple opening-and-closing codend system at 13 Northwest Coral Sea (NWCS) areas (5 upper-200 m sampling depth-layers, 2 nighttime trawl-deployments/area) and a surface net were used to examine the vertical and geographic distributions of abundance and size of the leptocephali and metamorphosing larvae. 76.5% of trawl-caught A. scheelei leptocephali (33–169 mm, 95.3 ± 22.9 mm) were collected in the 0–12 m depth-layer and 927 (43–151 mm, 83.6 ± 19.5 mm) were examined from surface catches. Some larvae were caught at 12–25 m (12.3%) and 25–50 m (10.1%), but few were caught at 50–100 m (0.77%) and 100–200 m (0.12%). Leptocephali were most abundant offshore in the southeast and metamorphosing larvae (N=532, 82–146 mm) were most abundant in the northwest near the large shelf areas of Torres Strait and the Gulf of Papua. Regional size variations, proportions of metamorphosing larvae, and currents entering/exiting the NWCS suggested that larvae experience transport among areas, and have potential for retention by the Coral Sea Gyre or other recirculations. The high larval abundance of this small-size eel that reaches reproductive maturity at sizes <200 mm suggest it is more abundant in shallow tropical areas than is widely known.

如果对它们进行适当采样并且其幼虫在这些地区的近海丰富，则热带鳗的小型鳗鱼Ariosoma scheelei在印度洋-太平洋热带庇护湾和泻湖型生境中似乎很常见。他们的生物学。1997年5月，在西北珊瑚海（NWCS）的13个区域（5个上部200 m，使用2毫米网眼70 m ²开口拖网和多个开/关编码网系统采集了约7800 s。scheelei幼虫）采样深度层，2个夜间拖网部署/区域和一个表面网被用来检查垂直分布和地理分布的小脑和变态幼虫的数量和大小。拖网捕捞的A. scheelei的76.5％在0-12 m的深层中收集了小脑（33-169 mm，95.3±22.9 mm），并从表面捕获物中检测了927（43-151 mm，83.6±19.5 mm）。在12–25 m（12.3％）和25–50 m（10.1％）处捕获了一些幼虫，而在50–100 m（0.77％）和100–200 m（0.12％）处捕获的幼虫很少。左脑是东南部最丰富的海相，变态的幼虫（N = 532，82-146 mm）在托雷斯海峡和巴布亚湾大陆架附近的西北部最丰富。区域大小的变化，变态幼虫的比例以及进入/离开NWCS的水流表明，幼虫经历了区域之间的运输，并有可能被珊瑚海旋流或其他再循环所保留。这种小型鳗鱼的幼虫丰度高，在<