And yes, I checked out the link. In my opinion, the picture of the large eel looks like a tiretrack. I have seen a lot of variation in the color and pattern of them, and this certainly falls amongst those I have seen.
New Peacock Eel
- Thread starter Aqualoon
- Start date
I got my peacock eel about a month ago and he did the same thing he headed straight for the underground. But now he is the center of attention in my tank. I redid all of my rock to give him caves that he could live in and sure enough he started to hang out in them. We now have a more personal relationship at feeding time I use a small eye dropper and feed him Black California Worms right out of the dropper he will stick his head right into the end and suck out the worms. You can check him out here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bxxhGGsUKI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bxxhGGsUKI
Sticky calls macrognathus circumcinctus the zig-zag, and yes these are little.
http://www.fishbase.org/summary/speciessummary.php?id=55327
http://spinyeels.org/water_006.htm is calling these guys lesser spiny eels and another couple of sites are calling them half-banded spiny eels. This is the one I was referring to above. These were imported here last year, but they were ridiculously costly (>$50) and is horrible condition as the importer didn't know how to feed them.
Mastacembelus armatus is in the sticky as "tiretrack", but this pattern tends to be called "zig-zag" in my experience.
Mastacembelus favus has a courser pattern and is the tiretrack I have known. Fishbase puts it as slightly smaller than M. armatus, which isn't what I've known but I'm not terribly experienced with these fish... but for my fascination. Either way, both about or over 2".
Ultimately common names get pretty useless pretty quickly, particularly when fish are similar when little and suppliers/dealers are apathetic or ignorant.
A
http://www.fishbase.org/summary/speciessummary.php?id=55327
http://spinyeels.org/water_006.htm is calling these guys lesser spiny eels and another couple of sites are calling them half-banded spiny eels. This is the one I was referring to above. These were imported here last year, but they were ridiculously costly (>$50) and is horrible condition as the importer didn't know how to feed them.
Mastacembelus armatus is in the sticky as "tiretrack", but this pattern tends to be called "zig-zag" in my experience.
Mastacembelus favus has a courser pattern and is the tiretrack I have known. Fishbase puts it as slightly smaller than M. armatus, which isn't what I've known but I'm not terribly experienced with these fish... but for my fascination. Either way, both about or over 2".
Ultimately common names get pretty useless pretty quickly, particularly when fish are similar when little and suppliers/dealers are apathetic or ignorant.
A
andyroo;5111227; said:
This is what I have, my ZZ.
The eel from your link (Mastacembelus armatus) is actually a Tire Track. Click on the picture of the link, and it will show more pictures, one of the few pics that isn't of an all dried up eel is on the upper right by Vikram, B. That my friend is clearly a Tire Track Eel and not a Zig Zag.
Yes, tons of LFS have these eels mislabeled as when they are younger it's very difficult to distinguish between them. There are also have a ton of sites out there that have them backwards as well - as you can see.
I am curious as to why you'd get all up in my grill on this thread when I'm asking about my Peacock Eel and not my ZZ. It seems your posts were well thought out (although not entirely correct) and you did look things up - but you failed to look at my MFK picture album where I have a picture of my ZZ which clearly shows it is not a Mastacembelus armatus/Tire Track.
Coldkill;5111157; said:
I've owned both, and the TT and ZZ may have a similar pattern when smaller, but it's really easy to tell the difference around 5-6". Pattern is completely different at this size.
Didn't I make a stab at your peacock question on the first page? "try ditherfish & caves... works with loaches... etc..."? The landscaping worked for Maki.
Nice eel pictures- I didn't know you could do that (new here). That is certainly the pattern I've always known as zig-zag, and I have personally laid eyes on an animal of that very pattern as long as my forearm and nearly as thick as my wrist. Its interaction with its owner was where my interest in this group came from. And no, I wasn't 6 years old and 3'4" at the time
Alright, fair enough. Ol'Fishbase is pretty ambiguous (read: crap) on this one.
"All up in your grill" though? Ah... no, never so personal. I was trying to learn about eels by posing a question in the form of a statement & discussion, with (albeit crappy) references. I thought that was the point of these fora.
Next thread should be asking people to point out internet misidentifications and shaming poorly researched websites.
Nice eel pictures- I didn't know you could do that (new here). That is certainly the pattern I've always known as zig-zag, and I have personally laid eyes on an animal of that very pattern as long as my forearm and nearly as thick as my wrist. Its interaction with its owner was where my interest in this group came from. And no, I wasn't 6 years old and 3'4" at the time
Alright, fair enough. Ol'Fishbase is pretty ambiguous (read: crap) on this one.
"All up in your grill" though? Ah... no, never so personal. I was trying to learn about eels by posing a question in the form of a statement & discussion, with (albeit crappy) references. I thought that was the point of these fora.
Next thread should be asking people to point out internet misidentifications and shaming poorly researched websites.
I don't know what you guys are doing wrong my peacock is out all the time now. It was very shy at first but now he is all over the place. Try feeding him the Black worms out of a little baby eye dropper, mine loves it when he sees my hand come into the tank, he even arches up like an S to feed from the droppers end. BTW he doesn't like to share his worms with my other fish if one falls to the gravel he will go and get it fast. Remember this didn't happen over night I have worked with him to make him feel like it is his home, even moved some of my aggressive fish to make him more comfortable. He needs to feel safe and secure.
