Eels in Captivity

Great Argus said:
Yeah, they're pretty common. They retail for about $25-40 apiece for Spotted and Splendid.
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Oh wow, that's a lot cheaper than I thought. I had always assumed that they were rare and expensive in the hobby, since you don't hear much about them in home aquariums. I'll have to keep them in mind if I ever set up a 40+ gallon saltwater tank lol. I imagine their shyness would limit what species you could keep with them but I imagine cardinalfish and dartfish would work, plus a deep sand bed of course.
 
DaLilFishie said:
Oh wow, that's a lot cheaper than I thought. I had always assumed that they were rare and expensive in the hobby, since you don't hear much about them in home aquariums. I'll have to keep them in mind if I ever set up a 40+ gallon saltwater tank lol. I imagine their shyness would limit what species you could keep with them but I imagine cardinalfish and dartfish would work, plus a deep sand bed of course.
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You're correct they're shy, it's often recommended to keep them as a species tank. They're also often shy about the humans outside the tank, one-way glass is sometimes used in public aquaria and occasionally privately. Garden eels make a cool display though, I'd be interested myself at some point.
 
DaLilFishie said:
I would hardly call all eel species not interesting enough, this may be true of freshwater eels but moray eels seem to be much more popular with visitors, and you would be hard pressed to find an aquarium without at least one species of moray. They are rare outside of Japanese aquariums but garden eels are extremely popular with guests as well.
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Me either but most people do. We are zoo geeks of varying levels, hence reading and posting on a zoo related forum. The vast majority of zoo visitors don't go to the zoo to look at any type of eel.
 
Pootle said:
Me either but most people do. We are zoo geeks of varying levels, hence reading and posting on a zoo related forum. The vast majority of zoo visitors don't go to the zoo to look at any type of eel.
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I know, but clearly morays are popular to some extent since practically every aquarium has at least one not at species.
 
Moray eel, garden eel are too common, so I won't mention them. Honestly, I think it would be harder to find an big aquarium without garden eels.

Several aquariums in Korea and Japan have giant mottled eel(Anguilla marmorata). This species is also raised for food in Korea, and when they sleep, they sleep lie down as if they were dead, like the clown loach.

And also, several aquariums in Korea and Japan have white-spotted conger(Conger myriaster). In the aquarium, they went into the pipe and only stuck out their heads, I don't remember seeing them coming out of pipe.
 
DaLilFishie said:
Oh wow, that's a lot cheaper than I thought. I had always assumed that they were rare and expensive in the hobby, since you don't hear much about them in home aquariums. I'll have to keep them in mind if I ever set up a 40+ gallon saltwater tank lol. I imagine their shyness would limit what species you could keep with them but I imagine cardinalfish and dartfish would work, plus a deep sand bed of course.
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Nevermind, I just found out how difficult they are to keep, definitely a species best left in the ocean, or in a public aquarium. Very high mortality rates and require almost constant feeding.
 
'eels' in captivity by continent, bold indicates unique species to the continent:

Europe:
Electric eel, Marbled Swamp eel, Fire eel, Lesser spiny eel, Zebra spiny eel, Zig Zag eel, European eel, Zebra Moray, Yellowhead Moray, Yellow Spotted Moray, Yellow Edged moray, Yellow moray, White Ribbon eel, Undulated moray, Turkey moray, Tiger reef-eel, Tiger moray, Spotted moray, Snowflake moray, Ribbon moray eel, Reticulated moray, Purplemouth moray, Pink lipped moray eel, Peppered moray, Mediterranean moray, Dragon moray eel, Jewel moray, Hourglass moray, Honeycomb moray, Greyface moray, Green moray, Golden tail moray, giant moray, Geometric moray, Freshwater moray (g. polyurandon), Freshwater moray (g. tile), Dwarf moray, Dotted moray, Dark moray, Chain moray, Brown moray, Barred moray, Tiger snake eel, Harlequin snake eel, Gold spotted eel, White spotted garden eel, Spotted garden eel, Splendid garden eel, European conger, and Band tooth conger

North America:
Electric Eel, Barred Moray, American Eel, California Moray, Green Moray, Dragon Moray Eel, Purplemouth Moray Eel, Ribbon moray Eel, Wolf Eel, Spotted Moray, Spotted garden eel, Splendid garden eel, Snowflake moray, Fire eel, Zebra Moray, Yellowhead Moray, Honeycomb moray

Asia:
Spotted Garden Eel, Splendid Garden Eel, Giant Moray, Kidako Moray, Dragon Moray Eel, Electric eel, Japanese Eel, Giant mottled eel, White-spotted conger

Australia/Oceania:
Highfin Moray, Giant Moray, Honeycomb Moray, Australian Freshwater Moray, Australian Short-Finned Eel, Ribbon moray Eel

South America: :confused:

65 species, probably around 5% of true and other 'eels'
This list is by no means exhaustive, just what we have come up with here ;)

Ribbon, honeycomb, giant, electric, dragon, splendid, spotted, snowflake, purplemouth, green, and barred are seemingly the most common.

A combination of Zootierliste and Europe just having a high species diversity in zoos has placed it above and away the leader. North America has seemingly few unique species, while Asia and Oceania have some interesting uniques. The gaps seem very apparent here, however...
No electric 'eels' or green morays in Australia?o_O
 
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Great Argus said:
I can confirm these kept in public aquaria in North America.

Many of the species noted as unique to Europe are present in the North American private trade at least. I've seen quite a few of them in fish stores.
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Yes, I wasn't being particularly meticulous and there are probably many more in the private trade. I might update the list. Also, Laced Moray is also known as the Honeycomb Moray (Gymnothorax favagineus)
 
There's definitely way more morays in the US. Denver Aquarium has green moray, greyface moray, spotted moray, California moray, and at least one other in one tank. Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies has honeycomb, blackedge, zebra, and highfin morays in one tank.
 
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I have seen the following species in Australia but I still need to work on confirming a few species though. The white-cheek morays are my favourite closely followed by the freshwater morays.

Ribbon Eel Rhinomuraena quaesita – Pet Trade.
Sieve-patterned Moray Gymnothorax cribroris – SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast, SEA LIFE Sydney
Peppered Moray Gymnothorax pictus – SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast
Honeycomb Moray Gymnothorax favagineus – SEA LIFE Melbourne
Fimbricated Moray Gymnothorax fimbriatus – Pet Trade.
Freshwater Moray Gymnothorax polyuranodon - Pet Trade.
White-cheeked Moray Echidna rhodochilus – Pet Trade.
Snowflake Moray Echidna nebulosa – Pet Trade. SEA LIFE Melbourne, SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast

Short-finned Eel Anguilla australis – Pet Trade
 
I finally saw a captive American Eel yesterday at Great Lakes Aquarium. I recently learned that Anguilla eels are impossible to breed in captivity due to their strange on not completley understood life cycle. Japanese Eels have been bred in captivity but the larvae hatch deformed and unable to survive for more than a few weeks. This has not even been achived with American and European Eels.
 
birdsandbats said:
I finally saw a captive American Eel yesterday at Great Lakes Aquarium. I recently learned that Anguilla eels are impossible to breed in captivity due to their strange on not completley understood life cycle. Japanese Eels have been bred in captivity but the larvae hatch deformed and unable to survive for more than a few weeks. This has not even been achived with American and European Eels.
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The same is true for most eels, we know very little about their breeding and early growth.
 
Shedd aquarium has:

True eels: Philippine garden eel (Gorgasia preclara), Spotted garden eel (Heteroconger hassi), Ribbon eel (Rhinomuraena quaesita), California moray (Gymnothorax mordax), Green moray (Gymnothorax funebris)

Other 'eels': Electric eel (Electrophorus electricus), Wolf eel (Anarrhichthys ocellatus)
 
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