Tire-track eel

Care at a glance

Overview

Keep one per tank, since this eel is territorial with its own kind and will not share space peacefully with another. It is otherwise mostly peaceful but it is a nocturnal predator that will eat any fish small enough to swallow, so house it only with robust, larger species. It is a bottom dweller that needs that 450 liter footprint, sand to dig in, water from 24 to 28 C, and a pH between 6.5 and 7.5. Feed it after lights out with meaty foods like earthworms, frozen bloodworms, and prawn. It is scaleless and copper-sensitive, so avoid copper-based medications entirely.

In the wild

Tire-track eels live across South and Southeast Asia, in rivers and floodplains through India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam. They spend the day partly buried in soft riverbed, so the substrate matters more than anything else. Give them a deep bed of soft sand they can burrow into, plenty of rockwork or pipes for cover, and a tank of at least 450 liters for an adult this size. Keep the water between 24 and 28 C with a pH from 6.5 to 7.5, and run a tight, gap-free lid since they are determined escape artists.

Good to know

This is a spiny eel in the family Mastacembelidae, and it is large, commonly reaching 60 to 90 cm with adults around 70 cm. There is no reliable home breeding record for the species, so plan on it as a single long-term fish rather than a breeding project. It is a hardy, long-lived predator when its needs are met. Most fish in the trade are wild caught.

Did you know

The "tire track" name comes from the wavy, broken pattern running down the body, and no two eels carry quite the same markings. The long snout works like a probe, sniffing through sand for buried food, and the eel often sits with just its head poking out of the substrate, watching the tank until it goes dark.

Related species

• Marbled spiny eel

  Mastacembelus favus

  19.7 in (50 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)