What's this weird fish?

elephantnose3334 · Oct 18, 2023

I have never seen this fish in my entire life. It has a long body and head and leopard-like spots. Found in a New Zealand fish surprise egg channel. Anyone seen this fish before?

Lillypad101 · Oct 18, 2023

Looks kinda like a zig zag eel. How big is it?

Colin_T · Oct 19, 2023

Tire track eel or something along those lines. They are normally freshwater and grow to about a foot long. They turn up in shops sometimes but hide during the day so most people don't see them.

elephantnose3334 · Oct 19, 2023

Colin_T said:
Tire track eel or something along those lines. They are normally freshwater and grow to about a foot long. They turn up in shops sometimes but hide during the day so most people don't see them.

Re: Tire track eels. They're another name for zigzag eels. This one might be an adult or sub-adult.

Ichthys · Oct 19, 2023

This is the problem with common names. It’s also one of the problems with the internet where anyone can write anything. The Tyre Track is Mastacemblus favus (the fish pictured is this one). The Zigzag Eel is M. armatus. But these days both names are often given to several species of Spiny Eel.

simonas · Oct 19, 2023

Tyre track eel
Lovely fish but get very big and thick. seem to get over shadowed by fire eels but the tyre track is a lovely fish in its own right
Not seen one in a shop for years and I had a couple over the years in my tanks

Ichthys · Oct 19, 2023

Tyre tracks grow to over 2 feet long. I think Zigzags are around a foot even though FishBase and SeriouslyFish both say they also get to 2ft+. There’s still a lot of confusion about them online.

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What's this weird fish?

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