# Keeping eel's



## Brown_Hair (Dec 8, 2009)

Anyone one here keep eels?

Im not to big on aquairms but have been getin into eels for a while. Dont think ill get one anytime soon but thought it would be interesting to see if anyone keeps em, has some pics and can tell me abit more about their captive behaviour....


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## geckos_are_great (Dec 8, 2009)

i dont have any picture but i have 2 shrt finned eels. it realy depends on if there shy or not as they all have different personalitys. you will need a secure lid for larger one as they will get out.


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## Chrisreptile (Dec 8, 2009)

Are you after Fresh or Salt water eels?


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## gecko-mad (Dec 8, 2009)

i remember a thread with a guy that has an eel wich was goin to a new tank and wanted to know what could live in there like ackies, pygmys and netteds can anyone remember the name?


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## bongie555 (Dec 8, 2009)

ive seen a 4 ft one in a 6 ft tank at a mate's mate's place, one they caught at a local creek, it was an agro thing and very strong,eat anythingand and like what gecko said they will try to get out, they use to have to rope the lid down.


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## Sdaji (Dec 8, 2009)

I kept one on a barbecue for a few minutes the other day, then in my belly. Delicious!

Short-finned Eels are amazing, they seem to be able to live through anything. They can live in hard, barely wet mud for weeks on end and seem fine. They can live in fetid stenchy stagnant dams and thrive. They crawl over land for several kms when migrating. When I was much younger I fetched one out of a billabong and put it in a large fish tank. I had been keeping tropical fish for over 10 years and was quite an accomplished aquarist, but my indestructable eel died in a few hours!


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## gecko-mad (Dec 8, 2009)

sdaji i think you found there destructale side lol


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## Sdaji (Dec 8, 2009)

Clearly! I have no idea how though! I would have thought they would live in a bucket of manure (actually, they probably would). I'm still boggled as to why that eel died. I was disheartened and never tried again.


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## Ozzie Python (Dec 8, 2009)

i have a feeling smithy had an eel, might be wrong. would definately be something different to keep.


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## Tinky (Dec 8, 2009)

When I was a kid we had an above ground pool that we drained down to about 1 foot over winter. My brother and I caught sime eels and other small fish in the local creek, which we put into the pool.

When summer came and we had to clean out the pool. The eels had bread and there were dozens of different size eels in the pool and a heap of fish.


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## GeckoJosh (Dec 8, 2009)

The marine ones are really cool, my local petshop sometimes has some bright purple ones about 30cm long


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## Jonno from ERD (Dec 8, 2009)

Ozzie Python said:


> i have a feeling smithy had an eel, might be wrong. would definately be something different to keep.



Old Eric forgot that he didn't have legs and decided to go walkabout but didn't make it too far haha. 

I used to keep a Moray Eel but turned it's tank into a planted native freshwater set up.


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## geckos_are_great (Dec 8, 2009)

tinky all frsh water eels need to migrate to breed in the salt water and thats in summer so how did they breed in your fresh water pool in winter??


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## potato matter (Dec 8, 2009)

I have a few ribbons, very nice looking, but quite expensive...


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## -Matt- (Dec 8, 2009)

geckos_are_great said:


> tinky all frsh water eels need to migrate to breed in the salt water and thats in summer so how did they breed in your fresh water pool in winter??


 
Who told you that? Because its not true at all.

Ive kept both fresh and saltwater eels. I had a small moray and a snowflake eel in a saltwater setup and they were extremely easy to look after, freshwater eels tend to be extremely messy and poo a lot...good filtration is a necessity! Also they can quite easily remove their lids on their tanks even with bricks placed on top!


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## geckos_are_great (Dec 8, 2009)

no what i ment was there is no way they could have bred


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## cris (Dec 8, 2009)

Short finned eels make better pets than most snakes, they are as good at escaping too. Its probably illegal to catch the little ones in most states and IMO wild caught adults dont seem to do as well in captivity, obviously more of an issue if you impale it on a hook to catch it.

What Australian species breeds in freshwater? never heard of this before:?


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## waruikazi (Dec 8, 2009)

geckos_are_great said:


> tinky all frsh water eels need to migrate to breed in the salt water and thats in summer so how did they breed in your fresh water pool in winter??



It could have been in there migration path.


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## Snake Catcher Victoria (Dec 8, 2009)

There is a pond in Gympie. Im sure the eels breed there as they
seem to be increasing in numbers.
The Botanical Gardens in Melbourne have had eels in their lakes and ponds for over 100 years.
Do these eels have access to salt water for breeding?
I dont know, thats why Im asking.


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## cris (Dec 8, 2009)

ssssnakeman said:


> There is a pond in Gympie. Im sure the eels breed there as they
> seem to be increasing in numbers.
> The Botanical Gardens in Melbourne have had eels in their lakes and ponds for over 100 years.
> Do these eels have access to salt water for breeding?
> I dont know, thats why Im asking.



As far as im aware they breed in the ocean and travel inland, even over land during rain. They are less than a mm wide when they get into freshwater so that could lead to some confusion.


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## Sdaji (Dec 8, 2009)

Short-finned Eels (the dark ones you catch in rivers, lakes, dams, the Melbourne Botanic Gardens etc) breed in the ocean, and yes, as I said in my last post, they migrate up to several kms over land. The Yarra is right near the Botanic Gardens, so it's a very easy place for them to reach. Baby eels are called elvers, they get into fresh water bodies or stay in rivers, grow up, then go back to the ocean to breed. Sometimes lost adult eels turn up in strange places. Once in a blue moon we had them turn up at my primary school, much to the confusion and amusement of some of us!


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## beney_boy (Dec 8, 2009)

i own a 3ft Queensland long finned eel. freshwater ofcourse. willing to sell him if anyone wants to buy lol


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## beney_boy (Dec 8, 2009)

gecko-mad said:


> i remember a thread with a guy that has an eel wich was goin to a new tank and wanted to know what could live in there like ackies, pygmys and netteds can anyone remember the name?


 lol that was me . yer i still have the eel. hes being moved outside soon enough.


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## -Matt- (Dec 8, 2009)

cris said:


> As far as im aware they breed in the ocean and travel inland, even over land during rain. They are less than a mm wide when they get into freshwater so that could lead to some confusion.


 
Wow well I stand corrected in my post then, I just assumed that they could breed in freshwater as I had a few short finned eels in a pond in my backyard and they bred...however the young didnt last very long at all.


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## wokka (Dec 8, 2009)

The scientists are pefecting breeding in captivity for aquaculture, but at the moment wild elvers are harvested as they swim upstream from the ocean and sold under licence to grow out for market. Once grown they are chilled alive, to sort of hibernate them, and then shipped live overseas for sale, mainly in Asia.


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## greeny1 (Dec 8, 2009)

i once found an eel in one of my dams. bloody huge thing it was. i recon at least 4-5ft. it was lying near the shore and i nearly trod on it! this spooked it and there was rather large ripples coming off the water. ever since ive put an eel trap in there hoping to catch it. so far, NO LUCK!


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## Brown_Hair (Dec 8, 2009)

Some VERY interesting information has came out of this. Thanks guys! Certainly didnt know they could travel k's on land!?!?! 

Anyone have some pics of their eels? They come in such an array of beautiful colours.


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## garycahill (Dec 8, 2009)

Sdaji said:


> Short-finned Eels (the dark ones you catch in rivers, lakes, dams, the Melbourne Botanic Gardens etc) breed in the ocean, and yes, as I said in my last post, they migrate up to several kms over land. The Yarra is right near the Botanic Gardens, so it's a very easy place for them to reach. Baby eels are called elvers, they get into fresh water bodies or stay in rivers, grow up, then go back to the ocean to breed. Sometimes lost adult eels turn up in strange places. Once in a blue moon we had them turn up at my primary school, much to the confusion and amusement of some of us!


 
To add to Sdaji's post, both long & short finned eels breed off the coast of New Calidonia, the only place in the world that this happens. The elvers then travel via ocean currents to their new locations & migrate into fresh water. They only breed in salt water at this location. If you can get them to breed in your pond, I am sure there will be quite a few scientists very interested, so maybe you should consider contacting them to help them in their studies if this is indeed true.
I will post a pic of my long fined eel tomorrow, after I take a pic of him. They are extremely placid if raised in captivity & will even eat from your hand. Mine is around 3 foot long & has lived in a 4ft aquarium it's entire life (after being caught as an elver) It has shared the aquarium with fish of all sizes, but is currently sharing the aquarium with Eastern Long neck turtles. It has only ever eaten commercial fish food, so it doesn't bother any of it's tank mates.


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## Tinky (Dec 9, 2009)

The eels and fish we caught came out of a creek in Wallsend, Newcastle, where the water comes out of local mines. Minerals that come out of the water stain the rocks and reeds orange.

I have seen documentaries on eel breeding, and cannot offer any explanation as to how we ended up with baby eels. However I am telling the truth 100%.

In case there is doubt my JP number is 118696.


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## jamesf55 (Dec 9, 2009)

so eels all breed in the the ocean? I have seen baby eels inland over 10km from the ocean, to get there they would have had to cross huge amounts of dry heath land, sand dunes, farmland, roads, it just seems amazing if this is true. I have also seen eels in creeks in the north western suburbs of sydney. do they swim to there too?


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## Tinky (Dec 9, 2009)

I have just sent an email to Dr Bruce Pease from NSW Department of Agriculture: Fisheries Division, after reading an article he helped write on freshwater eel reproduction.

Hopefully he can shed some light on my eels.


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## Zoltag (Dec 9, 2009)

Yes, eels all breed in the ocean.

Dont forget, almost every single natural body of fresh water is connected to the ocean in some way. A lot of people tend to forget about the underground paths that water takes - Eels are just as happy travelling back up such paths as they are in any other type of water.


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## beefa270 (Dec 9, 2009)

jamesf55 said:


> so eels all breed in the the ocean? I have seen baby eels inland over 10km from the ocean, to get there they would have had to cross huge amounts of dry heath land, sand dunes, farmland, roads, it just seems amazing if this is true. I have also seen eels in creeks in the north western suburbs of sydney. do they swim to there too?




I would like to know this too


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## -Matt- (Dec 9, 2009)

I had two fairly large eels in a pond in my backyard about 10 years ago and over a period of a week at least ten very small eels appeared in the pond...I assumed that the eels bred, but now Ive learnt from this thread that all eels breed in the ocean. Is there a chance that these small eels have come from the ocean and just by chance managed to find my backyard pond seeing that there is no way they could have bred in my rainwater pond? I do only live about 100 metres from the ocean though.

I have also seen eels in small water bodies on tops of mountains a very long way from saltwater or any other water source for that matter.


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## RemoverAccount (Dec 9, 2009)

best way to keep eel is to smoke them - sensational!!


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## beatlloydy (Dec 9, 2009)

geckos_are_great said:


> tinky all frsh water eels need to migrate to breed in the salt water and thats in summer so how did they breed in your fresh water pool in winter??



I heard that too,...there are Eels in centennial park in the Eastern suburbs of sydney...I have heard that they migrate via the drains to Botany bay ..a distance of 10 km or so ..to mate and somehow return.


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## beatlloydy (Dec 9, 2009)

Tinky said:


> The eels and fish we caught came out of a creek in Wallsend, Newcastle, where the water comes out of local mines. Minerals that come out of the water stain the rocks and reeds orange.
> 
> I have seen documentaries on eel breeding, and cannot offer any explanation as to how we ended up with baby eels. However I am telling the truth 100%.
> 
> In case there is doubt my JP number is 118696.




Lol....we will need you to sign a stat dec on this and get it signed by a JP.

I believe you..stranger things have happened...perhaps eels make calling noises only picked up by other eels and this is how the elves? found their way there.


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## Sdaji (Dec 10, 2009)

Chickenlover said:


> best way to keep eel is to smoke them - sensational!!



They say smoking is bad for you, but it sure cured my fish, and my ham.


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## 1fishystuff1 (Apr 17, 2010)

*genetics*



beefa270 said:


> I would like to know this too



its in there genetic imprint to return to waters of there parents.


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## 1fishystuff1 (Apr 17, 2010)

*genetics*



beatlloydy said:


> Lol....we will need you to sign a stat dec on this and get it signed by a JP.
> 
> I believe you..stranger things have happened...perhaps eels make calling noises only picked up by other eels and this is how the elves? found their way there.



its in there genetic imprint to return to the waters of there parents. its all really amazing they travel thousands of kilometers


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## cris (Apr 17, 2010)

Sdaji said:


> They say smoking is bad for you, but it sure cured my fish, and my ham.



:lol:


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## crocdoc (Apr 18, 2010)

The freshwater eels that live along the east coast of Australia breed in the coral sea. The adults go through a number of changes as they make their way to the ocean, going from a muddy green/brown colour to silvery on the sides. Their eyes get larger, too. 

Once they make it to the ocean, they swim north/north-east to the coral sea, dive deep, mate and die. They don't return. The eggs hatch into larvae which change in appearance as they develop and swim for the coast. In one of the stages, called leptocephalus, they are flat and thin - shaped a bit like a wide gum leaf - and are transparent. By the time they reach the coast they are 'glass eels', at which point they're starting to develop the eel-like shape of the adults but are still transparent. Then they become elvers, which are a miniature version of the adult but extremely tiny. A couple of years ago I caught one as it swam up a creek and it was about the thickness of a pencil lead and only 4-5cm long. 

For all of those wondering how small eels could have made it into ponds or backyard pools if they weren't bred there, the answer is simple. The urge for elvers to head inland is strong. They'll go up waterways as far as they can go, but will also crawl over land to find isolated bodies of water, especially on rainy, or even just humid, nights. They're tiny, so often go unnoticed. Even larger eels will move across land if they must. Keep in mind, too, that we're all looking at the assorted ponds and dams as they appear now. Try to imagine the same bodies of water in a wet year, when the dams may have flooded over or even just when the rain has come down so hard a thin sheet of water is running across the ground, because that's probably when the eels moved in there. On a similar vein, I've seen green tree frogs in water tanks and outdoor dunnies in areas of almost desert-like dryness. It seems odd until one thinks about how many years they've probably been there and how many freakish wet years may have occurred in that time. 

Once eels have settled in to a freshwater pond or dam, there's no schedule or time-line for when they must go back to the ocean to breed so they can stay there for many years. It's not unheard of for eels to live in the same pond or dam for 25 years or more. That explains all of the eels living in land-locked dams and ponds for many years. Like the elvers, even big eels can move across land on a wet night. I once saw a huge (at least 1.5m) long-finned eel on the side of the Pacific Highway in Sydney - it got hit by a car while moving across land.


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## Sdaji (Apr 18, 2010)

cris said:


> :lol:



Wow, it took you over four months to get my joke! :lol: 

I like the way people keep explaining that eels breed only in the ocean and can migrate across land, etc etc, and people keep asking if it's possible, and people keep saying yes, and people keep asking if it's possible, and people keep saying... :lol:

Yep, pretty amazing creatures 

They can travel along stormwater drains (which run like an extensive spider web of underground rivers under most major cities), along any river or creek, they can dam hop (go from on dam to another to another etc, spending anything from a few minutes to a few years between each hop, and usually make the moves during wet weather). They get much more than 10km away from the coast, but hey, they can often do that without leaving a river which flows directly into the ocean, so it isn't even a challenge for a fish which can't get on to land. As crocdoc says, getting across 'dry' heath/scrub is much less impressive than you might think considering the fact that they'll usually do that sort of thing during rain, and of course, they're brilliant at detecting when it's going to rain for a long time.


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## saratoga (Jan 23, 2012)

An excellent radio national documentary on eels 

There's something about eels - 360 Documentaries - ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

and a short video I did on eels and fish in the botanical gardens in Sydney

Fish in the Royal Botanical Gardens Sydney - YouTube


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## reptalica (Jan 26, 2012)

Moray Eels r the way to go....great varieties too. Be warned though, dont house anything with them as they r as good as cannon fodder. They need a pvc tube as a hide and I know one guy who had to hand feed his otherwise it wouldn't eat. Very risky business indeed if u have been. If u ever get a chance to check one out check out their teeth. Nasty.


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## Specks (Jan 26, 2012)

well if they ca only breed in salt water how do they continue too breed on the top of numinbah falls
can they go up 35 metres up a rock face ?


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## SteveNT (Jan 26, 2012)

Our local freshwater eel is the single gilled eel. Someone needs to do their homework on max size because I have caught them (on live 500mm tarpon= big barra bait) and the biggest was just under 3 meters and solid. (Corboree Billabong, Mary River).

I wont be popping one into the fish tank anytime soon!


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