Need help identifying a freshwater eel, worm or amphibian that I saw before...

[spiff44]

I had a friend that had one of these but I don't remember what it was... hopefully someone here knows what I'm talking about...

He kept it in a slightly brackish tank (was more freshwater-but had some brackish fish too) with a ton of other schooling fish... it was a fat, gray round ended animal that looked like an amphibian to me(because of the skin texture.. was just like a salamander with no legs) with no arms and legs. He called it a worm. I think it breathed air but I'm not sure... was about 8-10 inches long and about as round as a dime. If I remember right its eyes were super tiny, almost non-existent. It functioned as a tank cleaner.

Does anyone have any ideas? I thought it would be cool to add some variety to my tank and was thinking of one of these....

 

[Fat Homer]

Any other descriptions such as color / patterns? Scaleless or armored etc?


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[spiff44]

It looked like just a smooth gray skin, no patterns... I'm steering toward an amphibian but I can't find anything when i search and no online fish stores having anything close..

When you picked it up, it would push both its tail and head (the head was like part of the body, it was almost a perfect cylinder that would only slightly taper on the ends to a rounded head and tail-which were hard to tell apart) against your hand in a defense mechanism... but was completely harmless.

 

[Chub_by]

Some sort of caecilian, can't remember the scientific name though.

 

[MonsterMinis]

Some sort of caecilian, can't remember the scientific name though.

Bingo... haven't seen them in the trade for years.. they may be protected now, I remember as a kid having a few of these guys and OP's description is spot on.

 

[spiff44]

Thanks! yeah, one of these is almost certainly what I'm looking for.

 

[spiff44]

Bummer that they're protected. (or need to be protected I mean).. yeah, looked around and they don't seem to be very available. If they are they're all wild caught which I'm not a fan of either.

Oh well. Thanks for helping me look.

 

[spiff44]

Here is what my buddy had... found this one for "sale" for $150.00 back in 09... holy moly! I guess I don't want one any more.