Younglin;4495264; said:
I can't remember the species. He was talking about it on the first day of class but I wasn't paying attention. I remember a student asking how old it was and he said 12 and explained the life expectancy was around 10-15. I'll ask next class. And if he has taken good enough care of it for it to live twelve years and grow to the size it has ( around two feet ) I'm sure it isn't going to just suddenly get a disease. And as I already said I do agree brackish water is best. I just do not think it is necessary for a healthy life for some fish. ( some fish are more tolerant to freshwater than others obviously)
So, your argument that a marine/brackish species can prosper in freshwater is based on a question someone asked your teacher when you weren't paying attention? You are on a website forum with many expert fish-keepers who have spent years, and in some cases decades, in this hobby both professionally and as pure die hard hobbyists.
You are insisting you are right, but can't even name the species of eel. For all you know it is a spiny eel, which aren't even eels.
There is a reason why so many people are disagreeing with you... it's because it is in the experience of many, many people, marine/brackish species don't do well in freshwater. I'm sure many people would love to keep a moray eel in freshwater, if it could be done. There is a reason you don't see this--it has been found in every case I know of that these eels at the very least are not as healthy when kept in freshwater their whole lives.
Yes, they may be able to live in these conditions, maybe even for extended periods of time, but their health is always compromised.
The last thing any of us want is to put out misinformation, for someone to read something on MFK and run out and get a fish and care for it improperly. We are here to give and receive the best advice possible, are we not?
If you want to do some more research, go out and get two marine/brackish eels from the same batch, keep one in freshwater, and one in brackish water, in otherwise identical conditions, and record the results, and then by all means enlighten us. But simply claiming things because you heard it secondhand doesn't do anyone any good.