Marbled spiny eel

Care at a glance

Overview

This is a large spiny eel reaching about 50 cm or more, so provide at least 450 litres with a soft sand bed for burrowing and an absolutely sealed lid, as they escape readily. Keep it at 24 to 28 C and pH 6.5 to 7.5. It ignores fish too big to eat but will swallow small tankmates, so choose larger companions. Feed earthworms, prawns, mussel and other meaty foods after dark.

In the wild

The marbled spiny eel is a large, snake-like fish with a honeycomb pattern of pale rings over a dark body and a pointed, trunk-like snout. It burrows in sand by day and comes out at night to hunt. It is often confused in shops with the very similar tyre-track eel.

Good to know

Mastacembelus favus is frequently sold under the name of its close relative Mastacembelus armatus, but its pale markings extend down onto the belly and it stays a little smaller, at around 50 to 70 cm. Spiny eels carry a row of short, sharp dorsal spines. They are not true eels but members of the family Mastacembelidae.

Did you know

Because it is so often mislabelled as the tyre-track eel, many buyers only realise their fish is a different species once the belly markings give it away.

Related species

• 

  Tire-track eel

  Mastacembelus armatus

  27.6 in (70 cm)119 gal (450 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)

• 

  Fire eel

  Mastacembelus erythrotaenia

  39.4 in (100 cm)132 gal (500 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
• Lesser spiny eel

  Macrognathus aculeatus

  15 in (38 cm)85 gal (320 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)

• 

  Peacock Spiny Eel

  Macrognathus siamensis

  11.8 in (30 cm)70 gal (265 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
• Zebra spiny eel

  Macrognathus zebrinus

  11.8 in (30 cm)42 gal (160 L)72–81°F (22–27°C)

• 

  Half-banded spiny eel

  Macrognathus circumcinctus

  7.9 in (20 cm)57 gal (215 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)