Eels

[ssabatier]

Hi Guys

I was wondering if anyone knew what sort of eels are sold in pet stores in Cape Town? I bought two from Tropicum Pet Store in the N1 City Value Mart a while ago, but I can't find any information on them online.

They're browny-grey, about 7cm long and 5mm wide and tend to lie around on the sand during the day, becoming quite active during feeding and at night.

I unfortunately don't have a pic at the moment, but if someone can help me with a couple of names, I'll google it to see which ones they are.

Thanks a ton
Steve

[Henk Hugo]

tire track eels?

[solex69]

Maybe not rope fish or polypterus? I know that Tropicum had quite a few of both recently

Cheers
Dale

[Gawiedj]

Hi Steve

Google: Mastacembelus

That covers most of the eels commonly sold in petshops.

Hope and pray you did not get two tyre tracks, because they get quite big, one of mine got to about 50cm and they can be quite nasty.
Hopefully you got two peacock eels or first prize two zebra spiny eels, both of these stay small and will not harras or eat other fish.

Eels are fantastic fish and very rewarding to keep. Mine ate out my hand and as mentioned before the tyre track got to 50cm and the fire eel I had got to 65cm over a 5 year period. Most of the growth happened over the first 12 to 18 months.

One more thing, they dig big time so not really suited to a planted setup; although not impossible to do :-)

Cheers
Gawie