True eels are mostly saltwater fish, and when in freshwater are found in moving water. These resemble eels but are freshwater only, and primarily live in swamp areas or other stagnant water like rice paddies in southeast Asia.
True eels are both salt and freshwater fish - they live the first part of their lives in salt, travel upstream into brackish or even freshwater, and then an unknown time later (kind of known, depends on how far upstream they travel - can be up to 50 years in some cases according to some sources but I didn’t dig too far into this) travel back into saltwater to breed. They’re basically reverse salmon.
Diffrent groups off fish all independently evolved to be eel shaped. So they aren't closely related to eachother. For example a electric eel isn't closely related to what we call true eels like morays and congers. Electric eel are knifefish so are closer to catfish and tetra's. The true eels in turn are more closely related to tarpon than to other eel shaped fish.
You ever like cup your hand to try to get it to fit in between the drivers seat and center console to try to grab your phone you dropped? Thats what you’re looking at.
Eel is seriously extremely delicious... People have the idea in their head that it must taste slimey and tough hard meat but it's such good tender meat. The fact that eels are basically just a long tube of meat makes it so that their meat is extremely low in fat and cartilage
and tastes so... Pure I guess you could say? Unagi sushi is God tier. Never seen them sold alive though. People who go to sushi restaraunt and are too afraid to try it are missing out. Other than properly made salmon sashimi it's the best menu item for sushi places.
If you can get farmed it’s not as bad, but since they’re carnivorous they’re quite expensive to raise, so most isn’t sourced that way. The result is declining wild populations of freshwater eels in SE Asia, sadly…
Omg, reminds me of a show I watched on Apple + about a hired maid and the dad was a chef. He got live eels in one ep and…yeah. It was wild. Glad this boi is happy in an aquarium.
I kept a blue crab I bought from a Mexican grocery store in a freshwater aquarium for about a year. I ended up killing it because it became too strong. It killed every fish I owned and ate them alive before that. The thing just thrived in that tank... It was so big and strong that I used a paving brick to keep its tank lid on. I didn't eat it. I wasn't a good aquarist and was maybe 16 when I did that. I imagine it would have lived for a long while, eating everything and tearing the place apart every day.
I’m always afraid if I ask for the critter at the market I want they will lob its head off and hand it to me that way. This guy is cool how much was he?
In Nevada it’s required by law to dispatch live human food from a store so they don’t become invasive. Possibly just fresh water ones though. Bivalves are sold living. Tilapia are invasive a lot of warm parts of the country.
I'm from the UK and this isn't a thing here. We don't have live fish to buy in grocery stores so I'm super jealous because this guy is awesome.
Once I saw live lobsters at a restaurant but that was years back 🤣 is there quite a lot of live food there? Super interesting haha.
Can't speak for OP, but here in Canada we do have live fish sold in some grocery stores. In my experience it's usually the Asian supermarkets that have things outside of lobsters.
Ah I see! It's super interesting to know more :D maybe there is something like that in the UK and I've never come across it but I've never heard of it here.
Thanks!!
The chinese supermarket in London chinatown and other chinese almost cash and carry like supermakets, like Wing Yip, have a live section. They just dont advertise it because if you need to know you tend to know.
I did wonder whether some spots in London may do, yeah that makes sense! Haha yeah not so many people here looking for live fish to cook with huh.
English people tend to be incredibly weak stomached when it comes to eating recently live fish and definitely if it comes to dispatching them themselves haha.
Thanks for the info ;D
Oh yes that part hasn't really changed sadly 😅 knife crime is insane currently.
Live fish for sale in shops to eat on the other hand? Not so much 🤣
English people are such curious beings. I'm one of them and I still don't understand us!
It would probably make me sad to see in real haha just interesting. Also cool that this guy just picked this lovely fella up at a grocery store that was destined for the chop.
I saw a live fish market in Spain when I was kid. It was horrifying. The fish were all laid out gasping and having buckets of water dumped on them to keep them 'fresh'. I never ate fish again after seeing that.
Good on you, I was vegan for 3 years and somehow slowly got back onto cheese and occasional chocolate. Maybe twice a year I'll eat a piece of chicken/turkey or fish but only if I'm 100% sure its from a well treated source as possible OR if it was about to be thrown in the bin because that's just so much worse. Otherwise it's a no go.
I admire you for sticking with it I wish I was better at it! I'd say my current yearly food intake is roughly 98% vegan 1.8% vegetarian and 0.2% meat/fish. Luckily I found good vegan ice cream otherwise it would be 50/50 haha.
Out of interest is it just because leather is essentially a byproduct of the meat industry?
Sorry for rambling on haha, thanks.
It definitely isn't for everyone. I was lucky that what I wanted for what I perceived as the kinder alternative to certain foods aligned with feeling healthier over all. That doesn't always work out. But as elmo_leanne was saying above, there are other ways to feel you're making those choice even if for health and wellness reasons you have to eat some animal products. There's no perfect solution, just choices we make every day and what we factor into them along with the options available to us.
Oh that's absolutely horrific, complete torture keeping them on the edge of death like that. Hopefully it's MUCH less common these days. I went on a boat trip and spent the whole time wanting to take the caught fish out of a tub of freshwater and put them back into the sea. Honestly it still makes me sad. I don't blame you :(
Ooh really? I've never seen anything live in one of the main supermarkets before!
Haha oh bless him. In my head I'd have thought the same if I'd seen them.
Although I doubt I'd have had much luck keeping them alive I'd imagine they'd be a nightmare to care for.
On second thoughts I'd definitely put them back after getting to the till 🤣 it would be a mental realzation process indeed.
Indeed it is odd, English people are generally very odd, we mostly eat disgusting over processed crap to be honest. Not often you go out somewhere that serves fresh food. The quality of most food in the UK is pretty dire, seafood included unless you live near a fishing port.
Not so much now. We've almost wiped eels out here. We're a tiny island. not much wildlife survives alongside us. But it used to be considered a delicacy.
Not that I agree w/ it, but have you checked out the Asian stores or Asian seafood markets? In California we've 99Ranch (among others) that always have some kind of live animals for food.
I also don't agree with it, more curiosity! Nope I haven't but someone else responded and said there are a few in London at Asian/Chinese stores. I think any form of live food beyond daphnia etc is very uncommon here - for humans or other animals.
I think our animal cruelty laws prohibit the sale of most animals live for consumption. Insects and other invertebrates are exempt from protections. We're not legally allowed to feed live fish or mice to other animals. People do it. But it's not legal.
Yeah I thought as much we're pretty lucky with that. I know there used to be a few places where you could choose your crab for dinner or fish etc so I wondered if buying live with the purposes of killing was actually still a thing here. Apparently you mostly see it in Londons Asian and Chinese markets.
I have a 34" Marbled Zigzag Eel called "Neel" , they're amazing and I have absolute love for Eels ever since a guy convinced me to take his at around 12" then.. they GROW but if homed and kept appropriately, they're really satisfying. You'll need to bond with him to hand feed, not all will immediately and simply just eat anything you wave. Be patient and persistent and he/she will be a great addition 👍 #eellove
It looks like a man’s arm in a moldy sock, that looks like a snake or eel.
I know it’s actually an eel but I can’t stop seeing someone’s hand. At the start it looks like you can even see the fingers through the sock.
After making that comment I flipped through your profile for a sec hoping to get a better idea of the size of this tank and I could tell right away that you've got things under control. Looking forward to any updates you share down the road :)
Soooo cute!!! 🥺 Never heard of buying eels from a grocery store, but we don’t really have much in the ways of Asian grocery stores where I live (I believe some Scandavian countries also eat eel?) What type of eel is this btw?
I put a piece PVC pipe in my tank thinking my cichlid would use it as a hideout, of course he didn’t, but now it’s a permanent fixture in my tank..🤷♂️
What am I looking at
Eel
Thank you
Fyi swamp eels aren’t true eels.
Pls elaborate
Swamp eels, electric eels, and spiny eels are not actually in the eel family
What happened? Did they misbehave during thanksgiving?
Mama doesn't like them anymore.
They talked politics too much with Aunt Amoré
😳😂😅🤣
True eels are mostly saltwater fish, and when in freshwater are found in moving water. These resemble eels but are freshwater only, and primarily live in swamp areas or other stagnant water like rice paddies in southeast Asia.
There are a small number of fully freshwater moray eel species.
Wow, TIL and [now i want one](https://www.google.com/search?q=freshwater+moray+eel&sca_upv=1)
Indian mud morays are brackish or marine , tiger morays are the only freshwater moray.
Huh, that's weird. I intended to link the google search for "freshwater moray eels" and it looks like it instead shared the top result. Fixed now
Can't fix it as it's just Google showing the personalized search result for each user. One of the many annoyances of customized searches
Only Tiger Moray Eels.
True eels are both salt and freshwater fish - they live the first part of their lives in salt, travel upstream into brackish or even freshwater, and then an unknown time later (kind of known, depends on how far upstream they travel - can be up to 50 years in some cases according to some sources but I didn’t dig too far into this) travel back into saltwater to breed. They’re basically reverse salmon.
Diffrent groups off fish all independently evolved to be eel shaped. So they aren't closely related to eachother. For example a electric eel isn't closely related to what we call true eels like morays and congers. Electric eel are knifefish so are closer to catfish and tetra's. The true eels in turn are more closely related to tarpon than to other eel shaped fish.
The thing that tried to eat the Millennium Falcon in Empire Strikes Back.
Yes!
Swamp eel(not true eel)
I literally said these exact words out loud before coming to the comment section lmao
Have you seen independence day?
Or tremors?
Perfect reference
[Graboid tongue ](https://media.tenor.com/CXtqBcEB8ncAAAAM/tremors-monster.gif)
Way more polished than my initial reaction of WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT
I was so disturbed, I could not find my fucks.
Graboid
Alien
Looong looong maaaaaan
You ever like cup your hand to try to get it to fit in between the drivers seat and center console to try to grab your phone you dropped? Thats what you’re looking at.
Looks like a sock puppet
Came to say, sock puppet core
A mottled eel?
Swamp eel
Do you have more information on it? Is it freshwater? Brackish? What's the Latin name? I'm so interested!!
Asian swamp eel (Monopterus albus) they are completely freshwater . They can go long long periods without water, a very interesting fish.
Wait so that thing could potentially get out of a tank and slither around like a snake?
Yeah, in the wild, they make burrows in mud during the dry season
That's incredible!
I think many eels can go a while without water right?
Is eely boi food?!?
He was sold as food, but he's too cute for that
You bought him?
Yeah
You did? Awww! So he's not gonna be food?
You are a good human. The way he stuck his head into the plants it’s like he is feeling them for the first time in years. Thanks for saving him
Food for what?🫣
People
[Deliciousness.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unagi)
Oh, my bad…I totally was thinking they were feeding it to some sort of home fish. 🤦🏻
They don't sell feeder fish at my grocery store. They don't sell swamp eels either, though, I guess.
Eel is seriously extremely delicious... People have the idea in their head that it must taste slimey and tough hard meat but it's such good tender meat. The fact that eels are basically just a long tube of meat makes it so that their meat is extremely low in fat and cartilage and tastes so... Pure I guess you could say? Unagi sushi is God tier. Never seen them sold alive though. People who go to sushi restaraunt and are too afraid to try it are missing out. Other than properly made salmon sashimi it's the best menu item for sushi places.
Also most unagi is from an endangered species, which makes supporting the wild catch of it pretty bad
Didn't know that... Might not get it then!
If you can get farmed it’s not as bad, but since they’re carnivorous they’re quite expensive to raise, so most isn’t sourced that way. The result is declining wild populations of freshwater eels in SE Asia, sadly…
Unagi!! Salmon skin roll! DANGER!!
Ahhhhh, salmon skin roll 👩👈
Eel is Fucking delicious. I love unagi. I suspect it's not this type of eel though.
Omg, reminds me of a show I watched on Apple + about a hired maid and the dad was a chef. He got live eels in one ep and…yeah. It was wild. Glad this boi is happy in an aquarium.
living my dream that’s literally the coolest thing ever. always wondered how grocery store fish fared in aquariums, keep us updated!!
Ty will do
Search for Leon the lobster on YouTube, I forget the channel name but that should get you there
Brady Brandwood is the channel name for Leon
I kept a blue crab I bought from a Mexican grocery store in a freshwater aquarium for about a year. I ended up killing it because it became too strong. It killed every fish I owned and ate them alive before that. The thing just thrived in that tank... It was so big and strong that I used a paving brick to keep its tank lid on. I didn't eat it. I wasn't a good aquarist and was maybe 16 when I did that. I imagine it would have lived for a long while, eating everything and tearing the place apart every day.
I want to see blue crab boss level
Dude had an attitude by the end. He attacked the glass once even...
He knew he had beaten the odds, and he went mad with power
I used to fish for crabs with my aunt in Maryland and I have vivid memories of that attitude. David Attenborough could never capture the AUDACITY.
I ate a lot of them in Mississippi... Maybe my crab knew? Lol
I’m always afraid if I ask for the critter at the market I want they will lob its head off and hand it to me that way. This guy is cool how much was he?
If you ask beforehand, they will keep them alive for you . He was 15$
How big of a tank do you need for one?
He's going in a 90-gallon, but I'm upgrading soon.
In Nevada it’s required by law to dispatch live human food from a store so they don’t become invasive. Possibly just fresh water ones though. Bivalves are sold living. Tilapia are invasive a lot of warm parts of the country.
Nice, from wild to captive to delicacy’s death row to pet. Long live otterboi’s grocery store asian eel. Proof this hobby is still sacred.
Pls tell him I love him
I will
How big will he get? What do they eat?
Around 3 feet , shrimp, small fish, worms
You purchased a tremor from the grocery store?
Lol pretty much
That thing is edible? Glad you saved it. Too goofy to eat 🤣
It has a cute face, but looks like it barely knows how to survive lol
Should post a vid of it eating if you can.
Will do
FTFY Should post a vid of you eating it if you can
Oh truuuu
CAN I PET THAT DAWG?!
I'm from the UK and this isn't a thing here. We don't have live fish to buy in grocery stores so I'm super jealous because this guy is awesome. Once I saw live lobsters at a restaurant but that was years back 🤣 is there quite a lot of live food there? Super interesting haha.
Can't speak for OP, but here in Canada we do have live fish sold in some grocery stores. In my experience it's usually the Asian supermarkets that have things outside of lobsters.
Yeah, you can buy Spider Crabs at T&T. They're huge.
I worked at a Superstore in Coquitlam about 25 yrs ago. We had Alaskan King Crab that were wildly huge!
That's pretty cool haha
Ah I see! It's super interesting to know more :D maybe there is something like that in the UK and I've never come across it but I've never heard of it here. Thanks!!
The chinese supermarket in London chinatown and other chinese almost cash and carry like supermakets, like Wing Yip, have a live section. They just dont advertise it because if you need to know you tend to know.
I did wonder whether some spots in London may do, yeah that makes sense! Haha yeah not so many people here looking for live fish to cook with huh. English people tend to be incredibly weak stomached when it comes to eating recently live fish and definitely if it comes to dispatching them themselves haha. Thanks for the info ;D
How odd. You folks had no problems hacking each other apart with swords what happened?😂
Oh yes that part hasn't really changed sadly 😅 knife crime is insane currently. Live fish for sale in shops to eat on the other hand? Not so much 🤣 English people are such curious beings. I'm one of them and I still don't understand us!
Visit the Asian parts of London.
It would probably make me sad to see in real haha just interesting. Also cool that this guy just picked this lovely fella up at a grocery store that was destined for the chop.
I saw a live fish market in Spain when I was kid. It was horrifying. The fish were all laid out gasping and having buckets of water dumped on them to keep them 'fresh'. I never ate fish again after seeing that.
I presume you’re now a vegetarian?
Vegan, for the most part. I do wear leather shoes, but my dietary choices align with vegan.
Good on you, I was vegan for 3 years and somehow slowly got back onto cheese and occasional chocolate. Maybe twice a year I'll eat a piece of chicken/turkey or fish but only if I'm 100% sure its from a well treated source as possible OR if it was about to be thrown in the bin because that's just so much worse. Otherwise it's a no go. I admire you for sticking with it I wish I was better at it! I'd say my current yearly food intake is roughly 98% vegan 1.8% vegetarian and 0.2% meat/fish. Luckily I found good vegan ice cream otherwise it would be 50/50 haha. Out of interest is it just because leather is essentially a byproduct of the meat industry? Sorry for rambling on haha, thanks.
Unfortunately doesn’t work well for everyone. I tried it for a month and lost energy, focus, and muscle mass.
It definitely isn't for everyone. I was lucky that what I wanted for what I perceived as the kinder alternative to certain foods aligned with feeling healthier over all. That doesn't always work out. But as elmo_leanne was saying above, there are other ways to feel you're making those choice even if for health and wellness reasons you have to eat some animal products. There's no perfect solution, just choices we make every day and what we factor into them along with the options available to us.
Oh that's absolutely horrific, complete torture keeping them on the edge of death like that. Hopefully it's MUCH less common these days. I went on a boat trip and spent the whole time wanting to take the caught fish out of a tub of freshwater and put them back into the sea. Honestly it still makes me sad. I don't blame you :(
Not super common to find live fish here , asian markets are pretty much the only places that do it.
Tesco had 'live oysters' - I had to divert my son before he tried to rescue them! 😶
Ooh really? I've never seen anything live in one of the main supermarkets before! Haha oh bless him. In my head I'd have thought the same if I'd seen them. Although I doubt I'd have had much luck keeping them alive I'd imagine they'd be a nightmare to care for. On second thoughts I'd definitely put them back after getting to the till 🤣 it would be a mental realzation process indeed.
Seems odd you folks wouldn’t have live seafood you’re an Island in the North Atlantic.
Indeed it is odd, English people are generally very odd, we mostly eat disgusting over processed crap to be honest. Not often you go out somewhere that serves fresh food. The quality of most food in the UK is pretty dire, seafood included unless you live near a fishing port.
Have you tried jellied eels? Do people in the UK really eat that stuff?
Not so much now. We've almost wiped eels out here. We're a tiny island. not much wildlife survives alongside us. But it used to be considered a delicacy.
Just looked it up and they’ve even been classified as “critically endangered” ☹️
I thought that was the case 😢
Not that I agree w/ it, but have you checked out the Asian stores or Asian seafood markets? In California we've 99Ranch (among others) that always have some kind of live animals for food.
I also don't agree with it, more curiosity! Nope I haven't but someone else responded and said there are a few in London at Asian/Chinese stores. I think any form of live food beyond daphnia etc is very uncommon here - for humans or other animals.
I think our animal cruelty laws prohibit the sale of most animals live for consumption. Insects and other invertebrates are exempt from protections. We're not legally allowed to feed live fish or mice to other animals. People do it. But it's not legal.
Yeah I thought as much we're pretty lucky with that. I know there used to be a few places where you could choose your crab for dinner or fish etc so I wondered if buying live with the purposes of killing was actually still a thing here. Apparently you mostly see it in Londons Asian and Chinese markets.
You can get live fish/crabs etc in Asian supermarkets in the UK. There’s a fairly big one in Croydon.
Been to London a lot but I guess I've just never been to the right sort of places for it! That's super interesting, thanks!
Fish or crab? I need to which before I visit Croydon again.
Yea, I can't really think of any places in Australia (or at least where I live) that sell live seafood other than mudcrabs.
Ooh yeah, I think I saw some live crabs for sale as a kid here but nothing more recent!
I have a 34" Marbled Zigzag Eel called "Neel" , they're amazing and I have absolute love for Eels ever since a guy convinced me to take his at around 12" then.. they GROW but if homed and kept appropriately, they're really satisfying. You'll need to bond with him to hand feed, not all will immediately and simply just eat anything you wave. Be patient and persistent and he/she will be a great addition 👍 #eellove
What a cool little guy !
Good on you for giving them a new life!
I tried to keep them 4 timed. They always die
How long did they last?
You gotta really be doing something wrong. Asian swamp eels are literally indestructible.
Have you kept them ?
Yes and they are native to where I live.
What temperature is the water where they live
These are very much tropical fish. Average temps rhese days are about 27-32 degrees Celsius.
I think eels are so cute 🥰
That looks like my cupped hand when I try to reach for my dropped phone between the drivers seat and the center console
LMFAO
Cute find! What are your plans for them?
I have a 90 for him and will be upgrading soon
I love that you are keeping him as a pet! Does he have a name yet?
Not yet. I just got him this morning.
I'm assuming that's an eel but why does it look like a Sesame Street knockoff?
It looks dead and like someone is moving it around!🫥
He is so cute (But he looks like a penis though)
this is a genuine "rescue''... one of the only ones i've ever seen.
Thanks for saving him! He’s adorable. I bet he’s gonna turn out to be a real character!
I can already tell he's a dingus
Goes great with unagi sauce... In all seriousness, good on you for saving him!
Your grocery store sells live eels?
Lots of asian markets in the u.s do
Haha I was about to ask if this was an Asian market. It was the only logical way I could think something like this would be in a grocery store.
What in the prehistoric fuckery
“I? I am a monument… to all your sins.”
God dammit that looks like something outta Star Wars
It looks like a man’s arm in a moldy sock, that looks like a snake or eel. I know it’s actually an eel but I can’t stop seeing someone’s hand. At the start it looks like you can even see the fingers through the sock.
Is this Tremors?
Yeah
News at Eeleven!
Awe - they look happy. And they don't even know you saved them from a dinner plate.
He looks like a hand puppet
That's a goauld
holy cow, that is big
I thought it was a snake
What grocery store is selling that?!
What store can I get these?
Alot of asian markets sell them
Ok. I’m not trying to be rude or racist I’m just genuinely curious: will I be judged going in an Asian food market if I’m American
Lol I don't think anyone cares
Ok. My best friend as part Asian so maybe that’ll help lol.
There is much talk, and I have listened, through rock and metal and time. Now I shall talk, and you shall listen
WTH is that?
No way that aquarium is suitable for an animal like that
It's a quarantine tank
After making that comment I flipped through your profile for a sec hoping to get a better idea of the size of this tank and I could tell right away that you've got things under control. Looking forward to any updates you share down the road :)
Ty, don't worry, I will take good care of him.
I hope he transforms from how happy and he will be enjoying his new home. I’m almost positive he knew what he was in for.
It's almost like you shouldn't instantly jump to conclusions with no context
Omg what is that thinggg
PVC Turtle?
What’s the grocery store? 🤣
Why is it being weird?
I think it's just doing it's own thing honestly. What else does an eel do? Lol
Soooo cute!!! 🥺 Never heard of buying eels from a grocery store, but we don’t really have much in the ways of Asian grocery stores where I live (I believe some Scandavian countries also eat eel?) What type of eel is this btw?
Asian swamp eel
What an adorable fellow. Good luck with him!
That’s some demon creature. I would be terrified to own it as a pet
Cool. I want one
He looks content.
I put a piece PVC pipe in my tank thinking my cichlid would use it as a hideout, of course he didn’t, but now it’s a permanent fixture in my tank..🤷♂️
Why he look like a sock puppet
What grocery store is this?
That’s a basilisk if I’ve ever seen one. Someone call Hogwarts
Is that one of those freaky worms from Stargate?