troub-eel-shooting

Yesterday, my family set out to a local fish vendor in Cogon to replenish our supply of aquarium fish. We did this because all of the aquarium's previous inhabitants have slowly died out, reducing the dynamic hotbed of aquatic life that was our aquarium to a depressing glass enclosure of wet decorative stones.

So yeah, our fish all died. But this is not to suggest that we are bad fish owners, for they all seem to have passed of natural causes... Except maybe for the last guy. The last of the goldfish had inexplicably lost its will to live. It spent its final days stagnant at the bottom of the aquarium, somberly awaiting death instead of happily floating around in the water as goldfish are wont to do. It's pretty sad. And what's sadder is that after it died, the water in the aquarium was emptied, leaving just a pile of small stones, which mosquitoes apparently enjoyed laying their eggs in. Gross.

Anyway! Proceeding with the story.

The fish vendor lady in Cogon kept her stocks in water-filled plastic bags. The bags could carry as much as five fish, depending of course on how big the fish were. The whole thing smelled of illegally acquired animals. I felt like a junkie buying meth from Jesse Pinkman, only I'm not a junkie and the lady selling me the fish sadly did not look anything like Aaron Paul. The place also smelled like peanuts.

I was surprised to find a pretty wide assortment of fish for sale. There were brightly-colored guppies

and these awesome things called archer fish. According to the fish lady, they shoot these blasts of water at mosquitoes or flies hovering above the surface. Whaaaaaat!

Of course there were the usual goldfish and fighting fish. But the fish that I was most excited about was this:

THEY HAD ELECTRIC EELS!!!! What the hell, right?! That's so AWESOME!!!

Okay I'm kidding, those eels weren't exactly electric. They were freshwater eels of a species I can't identify. The lady said that we could mix these bad boys in with regular aquarium fish, and they would get along swimmingly (get it?). She also said that these things just eat moss. Happily, we bought two - a "male" and a "female."

Currently, the two eels are swimming at the bottom of our tank, along with some adorable baby goldfish, two blue-green guppies, and two archer fish. We were pretty confident with the fish lady's advice about all these fish coexisting in peace. When we got home, however, a quick Google search told us that eels actually eat insects, baby fish, and even small birds. Jesus Christ.

There are eels that are bottomfeeders, living off moss and bacteria on the seabed. Those are moray eels. My eels, however, don't look a thing like this:

I wish I could take a picture of the ones I got, but they're always hiding beneath a rock or something so there isn't much of a point. However, I have attached here a sketch that I made, depicting the characteristics of the eels that I do have.

 

I really hope someone can help me ID this guy! I want to know if my other fish are in danger of being made into eel merienda.