Anguillidae

Anguillidae Fossil range: 55–0 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N Early Eocene to Present[1]
American eel, Anguilla rostrata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Actinopterygii Subclass: Neopterygii Order: Anguilliformes Suborder: Anguilloidei Family: Anguillidae Genus: Anguilla Schrank, 1798
Species
See text.

Anguillidae is a family of fishes that contains many of the freshwater eels. There are 16 to 20 species in this family, all in genus Anguilla. They are catadromous, meaning they spend their lives in freshwater rivers and return to the ocean to spawn.^[2] The young eel larvae, called leptocephali, consume plankton close to shore. They grow larger in size, and in their next growth stage are called glass eels. At this stage they live in tidal estuaries until they reach one year of age, at which they are known as elvers. Elvers travel upstream in freshwater rivers where they grow to adulthood. Some details of eel reproduction are as yet unknown, and the discovery of major eel spawning grounds in the Sargasso Sea is one of the more famous anecdotes in the history of Ichthyology. See Eel life history.

Freshwater eels are elongate with tubelike, snake-shaped bodies. They have large, pointed heads and their dorsal fins are usually continuous with their caudal fins and anal fins, to form a fringe lining the posterior end of the body. They have small pectoral fins to help them navigate along river bottoms. Their scales are thin and soft.

Anguillid eels are important food fish. Eel aquaculture is a fast-growing industry. Important food eel species include longfin eel, Australian long-finned eel, short-finned eel, and Japanese eel.

Seafood watch, one of the most well known sustainable seafood advisory lists, recommends that consumers avoid eating anguillid eels due to significant pressures on worldwide populations. Several species used as unagi have seen their population sizes greatly reduced in the past half century. Catches of the European Eel, for example, have declined about 80% since the 1960's. Although about 90% of freshwater eel consumed in the U.S. are farm-raised, they are not bred in captivity. Instead, young eels are collected from the wild and then raised in various enclosures. In addition to wild eel populations being reduced by this process, eels are often farmed in open net pens which allow parasites, waste products, and diseases to flow directly back into wild eel habitat, further threatining wild populations. Freshwater eels are carnivores and as such are fed other wild-caught fish, adding an additional element of unsustainability to current eel farming practices.^[3]

Species

• European eel, Anguilla anguilla Linnaeus, 1758
• Short-finned eel, Anguilla australis Richardson, 1841
• Indian mottled eel, Anguilla bengalensis bengalensis Gray, 1831
  • African mottled eel, Anguilla bengalensis labiata Peters, 1852
• Indonesian shortfin eel, Anguilla bicolor bicolor McClelland, 1844
  • Indian shortfin eel, Anguilla bicolor pacifica Schmidt, 1928
• Celebes longfin eel, Anguilla celebesensis Kaup, 1856
• New Zealand longfin eel, Anguilla dieffenbachii Gray, 1842
• Highlands longfin eel, . Anguilla interioris Whitley, 1938
• Japanese eel, Anguilla japonica Temminck & Schlegel, 1847
• Indonesian longfinned eel, Anguilla malgumora Kaup, 1856
• Marbled eel, Anguilla marmorata Quoy and Gaimard, 1824
• Polynesian longfin eel, Anguilla megastoma Kaup, 1856
• African longfin eel, Anguilla mossambica Peters, 1852
• Mottled eel, Anguilla nebulosa McClelland, 1844
• Pacific shortfinned eel, Anguilla obscura Günther, 1872
• Speckled longfin eel, Anguilla reinhardtii Steindachner, 1867
• American eel, Anguilla rostrata Le Sueur, 1821

References

• "Anguillidae". FishBase. Ed. Rainer Froese and Daniel Pauly. January 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
• Berra, Tim M. (2001). Freshwater Fish Distribution. San Diego: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-093156-7

External links

• Australian anguillid aquaculture