glass eel?

[lycaon]

so i was at my local fish store the other day and i saw a tiny transparent eel that they were selling as a glass eel.ive never heard of this.has anyone else? i was thinking about buying it but i dont know anything about it and cant seem to find much info on it

[Madding]

I believe a glass eel refers to the postlarval stage of a newborn. It would be extremely small and transparant. If the fish you saw was very, very small than that's my guess on it.

I'm not sure how to determine what type of eel it is. You'll have to wait and see. I wouldn't buy them in the glass eel stage as they are likely very sensitive and might die on you. You also don't want to end up with baby fire eels if you don't plan on owning a 300 gallon tank someday.

Photos or a good description would help ID it if I am wrong.

[aquariumdude]

maybe he's on the verge of dying? lol...ive never heard of a glass eel either....maybe you should of bought it? Or maybe it could of been some type of rope fish. I dunno

[aquariumdude]

fire eel should be fine in a 125 gallon i thought?

[Madding]

fire eel should be fine in a 125 gallon i thought?

I was speaking hypothetically if he were to buy a bunch of tiny eels, and fire eels usually reach at least two feet in captivity so I would say a 125 would not work out in the long run for even one.

[James0816]

glass eel?? new species maybe? lol .... i'd be curious to see this guy.

[lycaon]

Ya I read that 'elvers' are usually transparent. I would have no way of telling what kind of eel it was if that's the only reason why it would be transparent. Maybe I should go back and see if it got any color. It looked like it could be some kind of spagetti eel but I don't know much about eels yet

[bettaboy13]

its most likely a larval form of anguilla rostrata

[Twistersmom]

Did it look like this? http://www.azgardens.com/p-817-brackish-glass-eel.aspx

When I was setting up my brackish tank, I was considering the glass eel, but found little info.

[lycaon]

That's pretty much what it looked lik.I thought it was just a baby eel.I'm glad I didn't buy it.that site said the get 36" and my biggest tanks only a 29 gal lol

[jpappy789]

Yeah, fishbase lists it as reaching 100 cm (about 40") so definitely needs a large tank.

Here's an interesting read anyways:

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/item.php?news=1194