Native Eel ID........

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
It stayed alive the whole time it was in there (A couple of weeks). It was in there with another fish and it never tried to eat it or anything. We never did try feeding it though.

Honestly, he ended up killing it because we needed to clean the tank out to quarantine some of our saltwater fish, and there was nowhere else to put it.
I wish he wouldn't have brought it home, but no way will I release something back into the river.

It was probably about 7-8 inches long, and I'm assuming it had already went into it's fasting period anyway since it never showed any interest in the other fish in the tank. Pretty much all it ever did was lay on the bottom and sometimes slither to another spot to lay on the bottom. They're not real active.
 
If you can get me a pic of the oral disc that shows the teeth well I could ID it for you. A collection location would help also....Most of the pacific slope lamprey look very much alike and without this info ID can be an exercise in futility. ID is needed to determine what type of care the fish will need. (or If any care is needed)

These are not easy fish to keep and are not much of an 'aquarium' fish, but they can be kept successfully as long as you take a few precautions and and make an attempt to understand them a bit. I have personally been working with them for over 15 years and can outright tell you that if that is a parasitic your in for quite the challenge...but it is a rewarding challenge just to work with one IMHO...

It should be noted many of these fish are protected in the Pacific Northwest. I would not suggest in the future collecting these without knowing the exact species in your area and how to ID them. Several of these fish are candidate species for listing under the federal endangered species act..
 
Thanks for all the help guys.

He lived throught the night and is still pretty active. He definitely sticks to the glass and does what was described. I was thinking if I could get him to eat in quarantine then I'd put him in my 150 Native but I'm not sure now with that information. I bet the bass would eat him anyway.

Poly... I'll try to get a picture of that. I'd like to try to keep him alive. I've never seen one of these guys before so I had to bring it home and have you all ID it for me. I don't plan on taking anymore of these from the stream. They are really no use to me.

I'll keep you guys updated.
 
I caught one when I was younger, put it in a 'pond' in my backyard (it was actually a baby-bath) It lived for quite a while, and I found minnows that I used to put in the pond floating...so they must be able to catch feeders ;)

Paul
 
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