Aussie long finned eel

[Benjine]

Hi all,

has anyone kept or is keeping freshwater eels? I saw one in my LFS the other day that the guy was petting like a puppy dog - seriously it would come up to his hand and rub against him and he tickled it under the chin.

I was down at my local creek tonight looking for tank decorations for my new 4ft aussie natives tank and guess what I caught - yep - an eel.

I found out it's a long finned eel - beautiful markings, olive green and mottled like a murray cod - it's about 450mm long and apparently grow to over 1m.

Thought I would start this thread to see if anyone else had one and what they feed it etc.

 

[~THEO~]

G'Day mate, I have a short finned eel (Anguilla australis) but he is only small at the moment, 150mm maybe . He is wild caught and feeding on bloodworms. 450mm is pretty big, how is he going in your tank?

 

[Super Ape]

Hi all,
I saw one in my LFS the other day that the guy was petting like a puppy dog - seriously it would come up to his hand and rub against him and he tickled it under the chin.

well, fish or eels don't care for being petted they have only learned that the hand means food...
but yeah its still pretty cool, do you have any pics of your newly caught eel?

 

[cr8on]

I had a Longfinned Eel for a quite a while, first in brackish conditions with native banded puffers and mono angels, then in with my Saratoga Leichardti. It was about 15cm and the Leichardti 25cm, and it would nip at the Leichardti's fins. They can be pretty nasty, but are fun to keep. Make sure you seal up any gaps whatsoever around the lids of your tank as they are expert escape artists. I fed mine sinking shrimp pellets, prawn and bloodworms.

 

[masone]

definitely cool fish to keep but like cr8on said, serial escape artists. I used to have one about 70cm that would push the lids up in the corner of the tank. I used to feed pieces of fish fillet and prawns.

 

[Cammo X]

Hi all,

has anyone kept or is keeping freshwater eels? I saw one in my LFS the other day that the guy was petting like a puppy dog - seriously it would come up to his hand and rub against him and he tickled it under the chin.

I was down at my local creek tonight looking for tank decorations for my new 4ft aussie natives tank and guess what I caught - yep - an eel.

I found out it's a long finned eel - beautiful markings, olive green and mottled like a murray cod - it's about 450mm long and apparently grow to over 1m.

Thought I would start this thread to see if anyone else had one and what they feed it etc.

um are you in brisbane?, and did you go to brisbane pet super store? as we have an ell that i pat all the time,i showed about 4 ppl on sunday and also give them eating demonstrations, as he only eats pellets, and he does bite sometimes but very softly, i have stuck my finger in his mouth once and not a nibble. i named him lenny for some reason lol

Cammo X

 

[Benjine]

Yeah Cammo X, that's where I saw it - i work in Brisbane but I live on the Sunshine coast. I drop in there often cus they seem to have the best range of aussie natives.

I bought some pellets there today but it hasn't eaten any yet - probly won't till it gets used to the tank and hungry enough to take something other than live food.

So far it seems pretty docile (i've taped up the gaps in the lids though)- my brislenose keeps trying to kick it out from under the log but it just ignores it.

I'll post some pics if I can figure out how - I'm a bit new to forums

 

[Cammo X]

lol, this is funny, i met someone thats a memeber on mfk randomly.

but yer cant wait for pics mate!

Cammo X

 

[thebase#1]

um are you in brisbane?, and did you go to brisbane pet super store? as we have an ell that i pat all the time,i showed about 4 ppl on sunday and also give them eating demonstrations, as he only eats pellets, and he does bite sometimes but very softly, i have stuck my finger in his mouth once and not a nibble. i named him lenny for some reason

dammit cammo, stop patting lenny and get back to work

 

[Benjine]

well, 'eric the eel' turned out to be a pain in the bum - it dug, ripped out burried air lines and plants and then got half out of the tank - I decided to put it out in the pond, so into a bucket and half way across the lounge room it jumped out and headed for the bedroom!! a slimy wrestle later and we had it back in the bucket and swiftly out in the pond.


Here's some pics of it anyway - I couldn't see it one morninig - it was under the gravel!