Question on Flounders and Eels.

[Blue Crab of PAIN!!!!]

Hello All!
Recently in an ichthyology lab practicum My friend and I had the opportunity to work with a preserved hogchoker and American Eel fish. In spite of it smelling like garbage and being an off-brown color due to preservation I still found both of them to be very cute in a strange way. My friend and I might be interested in getting an aquarium set up now with a type of "freshwater" flatfish and some type of TRUE eel. This assumes that my friend does not get a Jeweled Lacerta instead.

Being a student the fact that a lot of FW fish sold as "eels" aren't actually eels really, really bothers me. I'm looking for a true Anguilliform eel with this kind of face:

As for the flatfish We would prefer one of the true freshwater forms, like the pointy freshwater tonguefish or something similar. The hogchoker is a brackish-water fish and, if need be, we can arrange for a brackish aquarium. Still, we prefer fresh.



Here are my questions to you guys: Are there 1. Any types of true FW eels which stay a reasonable size? 4ft long for an American eel is too long. 2. What kind of true FW flatfish are out there? I've only seen one (some Peruvian flounder or something like that), but there's more out there.
3. About what size tank would I need for a Hogchoker or other FW flatfish? 4. Where do you think I can get either eels or flatfish?
And finallly 5. Can flatfish and eels get along together?

Thank you all for your help?

 

[vitaly]

i have kept hogchockers for a couple of years in brackish water. they are usually the ones that show up in jacks's aquarium under flounder. you can keep them in 30g since they are not very active. when they are small i fed them blood worms, but once they got large they started taking hikari carnivor pellets.
Make sure that you dont mix flounders or solefish with anything active because they pretty slow and will starve to death.
also, make sure to buy 4-5 at a time because in experience about half of them wont adopt to captivity and refuse to eat.

if you want to try fresh water soles, you might have to special order them online. i have not seen them for sale in stores. but apparently they are not rare. i would assume that care would be the same as for hogchokers.