Eel: Let’s Get To Know This Feared Fish Better

Eel is an easy fish to identify. It looks like a snake, but inhabits both fresh and salt water. Its fame is due to the fact that there is a variety that can give the shock. If you want to discover the characteristics and curiosities of eels, then don’t miss this interesting article.

General characteristics of the eel

The eel family is made up of bony fish that have the ability to live both in rivers (or lakes) and in the sea. This particularity, developed as an evolutionary stratagem by different species, takes the name of euryhaline. They are distributed in tropical and temperate waters of the Pacific and Atlantic.

These are very ancient animals, since fossils of eels have been found dating back to about 20 million years ago. Their elongated body is the main feature of these fish. An adult eel can measure between 70 centimeters and two meters – the females are larger – and the skin is covered with a mucous secretion which allows it to be more elusive.

They can travel over 4,000 kilometers just to spawn in the sea, as opposed to what salmon do when they run upstream rivers. Once they arrive in the established place and which has specific conditions (500 meters deep and 15 degrees of temperature), they reproduce. After mating and laying, the parents die, overwhelmed with fatigue.

The eggs hatch after a few days and the young move through the sea currents to reach the river channels again. Sometimes they can take up to 4 years to settle in their new territory.

Passing from salt to fresh water, the metamorphosis is completed in their organism that will transform them into eels. A very curious fact is that, according to the salinity of the water, individuals will be male (more salt) or female.

The European eel

It is one of the most famous eel species , common in the north of the Atlantic Ocean and in the European seas. It can measure around 130 centimeters and weigh around seven pounds.  It has no spines, its lower jaw is longer than its upper one, and it has a kind of ‘single fin’ from the anus to the center of the spine.

When winter ends, it reaches the Sargasso Sea to reproduce. The larvae remain there for 10 months and then travel to the European coasts using the Gulf currents. They undertake the journey back to the sea when they are adults and, all this time, they stop feeding.

The North American eel

This migratory fish is found on the east coast of North America. It has a thin skin covered with a mucous layer. The fins of the American eel are linked together, like their European cousin.

It can be of different colors: yellow, green, light gray, brown or olive green. However, the belly is always lighter, compared to the shade of the back. The coloring depends on the tone of the water in which it lives.

To reproduce, it travels to the ocean. The female lays up to four million floating eggs and dies after a tremendous sacrifice. Hatching occurs 10 weeks later and the larvae reach freshwater systems – such as the Hudson River and Chesapeake Bay – in order to reach adulthood.

The electric eel

It is not a direct relative of the other eels, but it does share some physical characteristics with them. For example, the long greenish body and mouth full of teeth, with the lower jaw more prominent than the upper jaw.

The electric eel has the ability to emit discharges of up to 850 volts thanks to special cells on the body. This method is used to hunt their prey, defend themselves and even communicate. It is able to hold the shake for 60 seconds!

It lives in South America, particularly in the basins of the Amazon and the Orinoco River, and prefers quiet areas with swampy soils. The largest specimens of which we have news can reach 2.5 meters in length, weighing around 20 kilos.