eel tank

a 60,000 litre tank housing long-finned eels (Anguilla dieffenbachii), a species endemic to New Zealand. This is the largest freshwater eel species in the world. Most of the ones in this tank are in excess of six feet long, and the estimated age of most of them is between 80 and 100 years. One individual in here is estimated to be 120 years old or more.

January 2012

What is the temperament of this species? Is it an aggressive predator like a moray, or more placid?

well I wouldn't say morays are aggressive, they just have a bad reputation. But the long-finned eels are pretty placid* and they tame very easily. I'll see if I can get some photos of the feeding at this tank where the eels pretty much line up at the edge for the visitors to put food in their mouths. In the wild big eels like these ones are mostly scavengers of carrion. (I'd also like to apologise for the crappiness of this photo! The aquarium is quite dim but with a flash you either get glare back off the tank or the back is left too dark to see anything).





*unless you are a fan of Jeremy Wade's "River Monsters" in which case they are horrible murderous beasts from Hades that will not hesitate to drag people into the depths of rivers to devour them alive......

photos of eel feeding (not that it'll be hard to find them in this aquarium's gallery!):
http://www.zoochat.com/1741/eel-feeding-258107/
http://www.zoochat.com/1741/eel-feeding-258108/
http://www.zoochat.com/1741/eel-feeding-258106/