Longfin Eel
$36.00
Details
Product of Antics
60cm long
Filled with recycled fibres
Fun Facts;
The Longfin eel is the largest freshwater eel in New Zealand and the only emdemic species.
The female of the species is considerably larger, being up to 156cm in length, and lives to around 60 years of age, much longer than the male.
Longfin eels are slender bodied with scales and fins. The dorsal fin is about two thirds of the length of their body, hence the name long fin.
Longfin eels breed only once at the end of their lives, making the journey of thousands of kilometres from New Zealand to their spawning grounds near Tonga. The mature eels then dies and their eggs drift back to New Zealand in oceanic currents. The young (called elvers) then migrate upstream to develop into adults.
They are legendary climbers and are often found great distances inland along fresh waterways and in high country lakes which are connected to the sea.
They are omnivorous, their diet consisting of mainly insect larvae when they are small, but mature eel feed heavily on fish.
They are classified as endangered due to habitat loss.