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Glass Kuhlis


wilson

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I went along and got me 3 of the "glass kuhlis"

Took some photos but i am not happy with any of them. this was the best of the lot. Gonna try again.

Haven't the foggiest what they are but i noticed they do not have barbels which i thought is a requirement of being a loach?

They burrow into the sand backwards! :lol: :o

loach.jpg

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No. I had a look at that site and I don't think that is them. My guys heads are much longer and ...well everything seems to be long on them.

They don't appear to have any fins as such either! They swim like eels rather than kuhlis.

Just waiting for photos to load up as i type....... :roll:

confrence031.jpg

confrence033.jpg

I am much happier with these photos.

Note the green airline T intersection in the 1st pic. These wee guys are thin enough i reckon they could swim up and airline tube!

Their gills seem to be behind the first bulge.

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Ok guys, I managed to get into Organism after work, and they are without doubt eels (as in true eels, Anguilla sp). True eels go through several life stages, first being the marine leptocephalus, then glass eel when returning to freshwater, then elvers (like very miniature adults), then they just grow from there. The ones currently being sold as "glass kuhlis" are at the glass eel stage. They will start colouring up soon. I didn't have a magnifying glass but could just (barely) make out a fin protruding past the actual tail tip. In eels the dorsal, caudal and anal fin are combined to make one long fin, but in glass eels the fin and body are almost indistinguishable so it is VERY hard to see. The first bulge in the body, as seen in the photos, is the gill arch.

These ones are not NZ eels, and are likely to be an Asian Anguilla species. There is no way MoF would knowingly allow the import of Anguilla eels because of the risk that would pose to our native eels, both in terms of them as a species and in terms of our eel fisheries. They are therefore "illegal", and I would suggest people do not buy them.

For those that do have them, glass eels are very easily reared on brine shrimp, bloodworms, etc.

They are certainly not loaches, and neither are they Afromastacembelus as suggested (all mastacembelids have pointed noses even as tiny babies).There is a very slim chance they could be synbranchids (swamp eels) but it is unlikely; I haven't seen baby synbranchids so I don't know their fin structure.

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