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found one, it the 5th one down on this page, grows between 4-6 inches. http://www.thegoldfishbowl.co.uk/atlas.cgi?a=Tropical&f=Mastacemblidae

I would have to disagree. According to many, fire eels are just as hardy as all other species of the genus Mastacembelus. I couldn’t argue with that, either, as one of the display tanks in my LFS has housed one very large and very happy fire eel for the last year or so in a somewhat overstocked tank. As touched upon in the above posts, all spiny eels seem to enjoy a bit of salt in the aquarium water, as in nature, they are often caught fairly close to the edge of tributaries flowing seaward—not quite brackish conditions, but still salty nonetheless. Furthermore, most of the larger species of spiny eels do NOT prefer company. While they may tolerate others of the same kind with plenty of space and hidey holes, however, if confined to a small tank, more often than not, aggressive behavior will ensure, eventually resulting in the removal of one of the individuals. Even my peacocks will beat each other around from time to time.

A lot of fish don`t do good in saltwater such as BGK, Elephantnose, Clown Loach, All other Loaches, Plecs (some have very small scales) and many others. There are definatley Spiny Eels that reach small sizes

As aforementioned, there are many scaleless fish which live in brackish to full saltwater. If that's not a common practice, then perhaps you could explain to me how so many gobies, eels, pufferfish, and others arre found in marine, brackish, and freshwater conditions...?

Mastacembelus Circumcinctus, also known as the zigzag eel, is a personal favorite of mine.They reach lengths in excess of 9 inches in the aquarium (if given ample room--I had mine in a 75 gallon, and it was a good seven inches before we moved), and up to a foot and a half in the wild.

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 13-Oct-2004 12:38

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 13-Oct-2004 12:44

Aethiomastacembelus vanderwaali - 15cm
Aethiomastacembelus platysoma - 16cm
Macrognathus pancalus - 18cm
Macrognathus taeniagaster - 16cm
Caecomastacembelus latens - 7.2cm
Caecomastacembelus ubangensis - 10cm
Caecomastacembelus brichardi - 12.4cm
Caecomastacembelus brachyrhinus - 15cm
Macrognathus circumcinctus - 15cm
Aethiomastacembelus sexdecimspinus - 15.6cm
Caecomastacembelus crassus - 15.7cm
Aethiomastacembelus marchei - 16cm
Aethiomastacembelus sanagali - 16.1cm
Aethiomastacembelus stappersii - 17.1cm
Caecomastacembelus aviceps - 17.5cm
Macrognathus meklongensis - 17.8cm

There are a list of species all from http://www.fishbase.org

As you can see the smallest is 7.2cm which is nearly 3 inches! Sorry to prove you wrong but you really chose the wrong person to argue against

Ah, so I see. That's neat.

Also, I agree, scaleless fish are a nightmare to treat with meds.

Thanks for the list Perky!

By the way, is any of those Caecomastacembelus species the lemon yellow one I mentioned?

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I am afraid I don`t know. The Yellow Eel probably isn`t on there as because there isn`t much known about it they will want to get an accurate profile before saying it stays small where it might be a 4ft monster Eel

So far, the quote I have is 20 cm as a minimum one should expect an adult to grow to, and possibly double that for the bright yellow Spiny Eel. Until more of them appear on the scene, though, we won't know for certain.

But let's face it, a BRIGHT YELLOW SPINY EEL. What a fish! And the phot I have in the magazine is awesome - this is truly sky-high desirable among Eel keepers, and it's not hard to see why!

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Even the asians get small, 6 inches is smaller ones. I wasn`t on bout you anyway, other people didn`t believe any spinys got that small. Anyway, most scaleless will be affected by certain things, that includes medicines, salt and lots more.

I wish my spiny eel was big and aggressive...

He was only about 2 inches long and only lasted one night in my tank..it kept getting picked on and eventually my lombardi killed it..

I will try and find a link of a small eel. They do get affected as they can do when you add certain medicines. It is common practice not to keep scaleless fish in SW

Do you have a link? I'd really enjoy seeing a pygmy spiny eel, if there is such a species. Also, I fail to see how small scaled/ scaleless fishes are negatively effected by salt. Puffers, true eels, and most other tetraodontids do fine [thrive] in saltwater.

hey perky, do you know the name of the spiny that only gets 4"? my LFS had a congo spiny in once and they reconed it only got about 4"

oh, and they don`t do good in saltwater as they have really small scales and it can affect them after short time

no, i have definatley heard and been told there are some that reach 4 inches max length, just coz they ain`t as common doesn`t mean they don`t exist. Mine is nearly full size and is about 12inches (measured it properly yesterday and removed 1inch for the glass making look bigger). Believe me there are definatley small ones, I have seen pictures of them and read info on them on the net.

I don't know where you're getting this information, but I assure you, spinys do perfectly fine in slightly salty water. As aforementioned, the spinies at my LFS are kept in water which has a few tspns of salt per gallon, along with puffers and [previously] FW morays. They do fine, and are thriving.

i belive there is another genus of spiny eels that don't grow quite so large, but all would grow at least 7-8inch plus. i have to disagree about spinys likeing a bit of salt. i've heard alot of reports that spiny eels (fire eel excluded) h8 the stuff. even fire eels only like it in tiny amounts, so you are best just to leave your water totally fresh.....altho i don't think they'll complain to much if you but a bit in for preventitive reasons i know some ppl put in a couple of tsp per gallon....i don't tho so i cant recomend it

No known spiny eel species only reaches "a few inches in length". As for the size of fishes they are capable of eating, spinies will often suprise you with the size of the fish they are able to stuff in their mouths. My largest peacock swallowed an opaline gourami. The reason your spiny is so docile right now is probably attributed to it's small size.

sorry but a lot of peopel are wrong. It all depends on the species of Eel as there are a lot of Spiny Eel`s. Some only reach a few inches and are harmless. I have one and he is about 8 inches and is one of the coolest fish i got and wouldn`t hurt any other fish in my tank. Others may get bigger and attack fish but only a few do really, most of them don`t reach that big and don`t eat small fish, they only eat the smallest fish anyway like Neon size and if you have any sense you wouldn`t keep Spiny Eels with Neons for a start anyway unless of course it is a smaller Eel that don`t eat Neon sized fish.