Tapir spiny eel

Care at a glance

Overview

Keep the tapir spiny eel by itself, since it is solitary and will not share a tank peacefully with another of its kind. It lies buried in fine sand by day and emerges after dark to nose along the bottom, so fine sand and dim, well-covered surroundings are the priorities. It stays peaceful with fish too large to eat but regards small fish and shrimp as food, so keep it with calm, mid-sized tankmates. Feed meaty foods such as frozen bloodworm, live blackworm, and small pieces of earthworm near the floor after dark. A tank near 200 liters with fine sand, soft water, and a close cover meets its needs.

In the wild

The tapir spiny eel comes from the Kapuas basin in Borneo, in soft, peat-stained blackwater among leaf litter and dense vegetation over muddy ground. Recreate that with a sand base, driftwood, heavy leaf cover, and low, shaded light. It needs soft, acidic water: a pH around 5.0 to 6.8 and warm temperatures near 23 to 28 C, with gentle flow and the tea-colored, tannin-rich character of a swamp-forest stream.

Good to know

Macrognathus tapirus, a spiny eel of the family Mastacembelidae, reaches around 21 centimeters and was described by Maurice Kottelat and Enis Widjanarti in 2005. It carries the long, flexible snout the genus is built around and lives among leaf litter and roots in Bornean peat swamps, foraging over soft mud. Like most of the family it has no recorded aquarium breeding.

Did you know

The eel is named for the tapir, and the comparison is apt: both use a long, mobile, trunk-like snout to probe for food, the eel feeling through sand and leaf litter much as the tapir noses through the forest floor.

Common questions

Related species

• Burmese spiny eel

  Macrognathus orthosemos

  Freshwater

  8.7 in (22 cm)53 gal (200 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)
• Line-spot spiny eel

  Macrognathus lineatomaculatus

  Freshwater

  8.7 in (22 cm)53 gal (200 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)

• 

  Half-banded spiny eel

  Macrognathus circumcinctus

  Freshwater

  7.9 in (20 cm)57 gal (215 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)
• Half-ocellated spiny eel

  Macrognathus semiocellatus

  Freshwater

  9.1 in (23 cm)53 gal (200 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)

• 

  Pavo spiny eel

  Macrognathus pavo

  Freshwater

  7.5 in (19 cm)53 gal (200 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)
• Barred spiny eel

  Macrognathus pancalus

  Freshwater

  7.5 in (19 cm)42 gal (160 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)