The Transparent Body

How about a Transparent Body? Did you ever think of that? I guess Not....so here we are
Leptocephalus-the transparent fish is the flat and transparent larva of the eel, marine eels, and other members of the Superorder Elopomorpha.

Photographs of leptocephali of the japanes eel, Anguilla Japonica  that were artificially spawned and reared in the laboratory at the IRAGO institute in japan. The larvac are approximately 30-50 mm long, and about 200 days old.

The Leptocephalus larvae of eels is a unique life stage for a bony fish because these larvae can grow pretty large and they can live up to a year before finally changing into the adult form of a conger, snake, moray or garden eel. Leptocephalus eels are rarely ever spotted because they are mostly transparent.This is the most diverse group of teleosts, containing 801 species over the span of 24 orders, 24 families, and 156 genera. It is supposed that this group arose in the Cretaceous period over 140 million years ago. Fishes with a leptocephalus larva stage include the most familiar eels such as the conger, moray eel, and garden eel, and the freshwater eels of the family Anguilidae, plus more than 10 other families of lesser-known types of marine eels. These are all true eels of the order Anguiliformes. The fishes of the other four traditional orders of elopomorph fishes that have this type of larva are more diverse in their body forms and include the tarpon, bonefish, spiny eel, and pelican eel.