Shortfin Eels (Anguilla

australis)

What do they look like?
Shortfin eels usually have a silvery belly compared to a yellowish one on longfins, but colours can vary considerably. Even pure yellow shortfin eels have been caught!

Where do they live?
Shortfin eels are found throughout New Zealand and on the Chathams and Stewart Island. However, they are not unique to our country and also occur throughout the South Pacific — in Australia, New Caledonia, Norfolk and Lord Howe Island, and Fiji.
Shortfin are usually found at lower elevations and not as far inland as longfin eels, but they are still able to climb large obstacles such as waterfalls whenthey are young. The shortfin eels are often very numerous in lowland lakes, wetlands, and streams.
Shortfin eels form the basis of the commercial eel fishery that has existed

for over 20 years in New Zealand.

Any old stream will do
Shortfin eels are our most tolerant native fish species. They survive environmental hazards like high water temperatures or low dissolved oxygen concentrations. That means they can live in habitats where other species cannot survive. Their ability to live almost anywhere might explain why eels are so familiar to New Zealanders and why they were such an important food resource for Maori who called them tuna.

What do they eat?
Eels will eat fish, baby ducks and any dead animals that fall into the rivers and streams where the eels live.
Eels are also quite fond of cheese.

Pet eels
Did you know that you can train eels to come when you call?! If you feed eels in the same place every week they will begin to hang around that area. If you make a noise, like banging or calling ‘Here eelie eels!’ when you are feeding them after a while they will come to the surface every time they hear that sound. One idea is to nail a container of cream cheese to a bit of wood and lower this just below the surface of the water so that the eels can swim over the top and feed on the cheese but the cheese doesn’t float off down the river.

Longfin Eel (Anguilla dieffenbachii)

What do they look lke?
Longfin eels are distinguished from shortfin eels by the length of the dorsal fin, which runs down the back of the animal; when viewed side-on, the dorsal fin is longer than the anal fin, which is found on the belly of the eel.

Where do they live?
Longfin eels are found throughout New Zealand and are unique to this country. The longfin eels are legendary climbers and have penetrated well inland in most river systems, even those with natural barriers. Large hydroelectric dams can also be scaled if eel ladders are provided.

What do they look lke?
As in the New Zealand native longfin eel the dorsal fin of Australian longfin eels is longer than the anal fin. Australian longfin eels can be distinguished from native longfins by the presence of conspicuous irregular black blotches all over its body except on its belly.

Where do baby eels come from?
When they reach a certain age some eels leave their homes in the streams and lakes and set off on a 5000km journey through the ocean. (That is as far as driving from Auckland to Wellington seven times.) Shortfin eels travel all the way to Samoa while longfin eels head for Tonga. When they arrive in

the Pacific Islands the eels are exhausted and thin from not having eaten for weeks but their bellies are swollen full of eggs and sperm. Hundreds of eels gather deep down in the ocean where they release the eggs and sperm to create thousands of baby eels. The adult eels then die while the larvae float around on the ocean currents for about a year before turning into ‘glass’ eels. These tiny fish-like eels then swim up the rivers to the lakes and streams where they grow into big eels.

Where do they live?
The Australian longfin eel is normally found on the east coast of Australia from Cape York to Tasmania.
How and when the Australian longfin arrived in New Zealand is somewhat of a mystery but might be related to changes in the oceanic currents that transport the eel

larvae from where they hatch out in the South Pacific. It has only been officially identified from the Waikato River, but mottled eels have been reported on the west coast from Northland to Taranaki, on the east coast of the Coromandel, and in the northern North Island.