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My LFS has recently received some cute little creatures they are calling Pango eels.

I was wondering if anyone knew anything about them as I can't seem to find anything on the net.

Thanks!

I'm guessing that they are some type of loach from the genus Pangio. Kuhli loaches are by far the most common and popular of these, but there are other species that can be found in stores. They're just seen way less frequently.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Can you figure out what specific group of fish it belongs to?

Or even finding out where in the world it comes from would help a lot.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

The were grey and didn't really have any distinctive markings that I could tell, however they were really small, 2-3 inches long and about half the thickness of a pencil. They were being kept in a tank with ADFs. All the guy at the LFS could tell me was that they would eat sinking fish food, he didn't know how big they would grow. They were selling them for £1.20 (about $2?).

Sounds like a description of a pangio pangia- a cinnamon loach or possibly even a pangio angullaris- an eel loach either of which sound ok for a tropical community tank of smallish fish. see descriptions of them in the baensch aquarium atlas volume 2 page 338.

Can send you a scan of the page if u like, but cant publish it on this site- see the bit on plaguerism . The fish certainly are a simply coloured in brown and grey tones, have reasonable length barbels and paler and more silvery underneath.Typically the eyes are black,and the blood to the gills is visible under the chin giving the underside or the head a pinkish hue.The lateral line is bodycolour but can be percieved running the length of fish. Adult length is apparently around the 6 cm mark.

Care is roughly the same as for kuhli loaches.

see links from a google image search below



Last edited by longhairedgit at 27-Aug-2005 07:04http://www.l-kummerfeld.de/zda02.jpg



http://loachtank.com/albums/userpics/10009/normal_silk5.jpg

Last edited by longhairedgit at 27-Aug-2005 07:13

my friend picked up an eel from walmart the other day, it didn't survive the night (probably because of they way he threw his tank together and because of cold, but it didn't have fins at all, it was very small...anyone have any idea what it mgith have been> he didn't have it long enough for me to take a picture of it.

Adam

Longhairedgit

I think the second picture is closest to what they looked like. Do you know much about them? Are they nocturnal like Kuhli loaches? Do they have substrate preferences? How large do they grow?

I think pangio anguillaris is the one you are most likely to come across. Ive never kept them personally but Ive seen the odd one here and there, and my old school used to have one in a community tank and it died (but hell , that was the 80's ) . I can tell you what I know about them but info is pretty thin on the ground as not many people keep them.

Apparently they are active at anytime,but you wont see them that much outside of feeding times. They prefer dimly lit tanks, like kuhlis- if its too bright youll never see them, theyll hide all the time, and you may need to buy a few of them as they enjoy the company of their own species. Having several specimens will probably make them more confidant. They eat most wormy foods like tubifex , bloodworm, glassworm etc, and they may scavenge a bit.

The water quality would basically be a peaty blackwater type chemistry with excellent filtration and oxygenation, but not too much current.
They like lots of plants and I think soft sands or peaty substrates are appreciated, lots of wood and rocks to hide under - they like to disappear and dig, much like kuhli loaches do, they have sensitive barbels too , so avoid sharp sands and gravels.

These guys stay pretty small around the 6- 7 cm mark, so given the shyness and small (read easily swallowed) size, i would be tempted to keep them only with small fish. Theyd probably get on fine with all sorts of small tetras. temps in the high 70's. Asian species apparently, usually from big slow flowing rivers and lakes.

I know absolutely nothing about their breeding or if their territorial but i suspect a bit like kuhli loaches- if it happens youll probably never see it anyway.

Last edited by longhairedgit at 04-Sep-2005 01:29

Last edited by longhairedgit at 04-Sep-2005 01:38

phoenix dude- give us a few more details about that other eel and ill see what i can find out in my library. shape of mouth , patterns , width length , region, etc all useful.

After all, if it was totally finless it could have been anything , from a juvenile spiny eel to a marbled eel (they can get huge) or even one of the weirder amphibians like sirens or amphiumas, a lot of people mistake em for fish.

Last edited by longhairedgit at 04-Sep-2005 01:45

Last edited by longhairedgit at 04-Sep-2005 01:59

I believe what walmart sells as dragonfish are actually these [link=http://www.aquariumfish.net/catalog_pages/wild/dragon_fish.htm#top2]http://www.aquariumfish.net/catalog_pages/wild/dragon_fish.htm#top2" style="COLOR: #C000C0[/link]

Those dragon gobies are amazing things- ive seen them kept with some quite remarkably small fish too. You'd think theyd be a major predator with that huge mouth. I'm quite tempted to get a couple.