Divefree

Fish

Smooth Horsefish

Congiopodus torvus

A smooth-skinned, humpbacked oddity in shades of brown, taken in moderate depths from Namibia round to Pondoland.

Also known as gladde perdvis

Smooth Horsefish
Photo: Georgina Jones · CC BY-SA 4.0
Typical size
Attains 76 cm
Habitat
Bottom over moderate depths
Depth
10-146 m

The smooth horsefish is a strange, arch-backed fish with a long snout and scaleless skin that is papillose in the young but smooth in adults. Colouring runs from light brown with darker markings in juveniles to a plainer dark brown in older fish. It attains about 76 cm.

It is a bottom-dweller of moderate depths, recorded from around 10 to 146 m along the coast from Namibia to Pondoland, moving with a slow, deliberate swimming style.