YES I WILL TELL YOU MANY THINGS

hose is a young male fire eel. he’s a member of a group called spiny eels, which are not true eels but rather very long noodly fish. they range in size from 5 inches to 4 feet long! fire eels are the biggest ones in the genus and require a minimum tank size of 200 gallons in adulthood. hose is a bebby c:

spiny eels come from two main places in the world, asia and africa. african spiny eels are active hunters of smaller fish, so in the aquarium trade they’re considered aggressive. they’re often kept with african cichlids and are useful for paring down all the fry that cichlids inevitably birth. asian spiny eels eat invertebrates like worms, shrimp, and insects, so they’re considered community fish.

hose’s favorite food is whole krill, which he horfs down like he’s afraid his tankmates will swoop in and steal it (which they totally will). i’ve tried before to give him an earthworm, but every time he bit it it would wrap around his face and this would startle him so much that he eventually just ran and buried himself, like a DWEEB.

hose has been in that tank for about two years now, but for the longest time he was so secretive that we were afraid that he had died! 😱

but we noticed him shyly poking his snoot out more and more, and every time i made sure to tell him i was happy to see him. then he started coming out when he heard my voice or the voice of one of my other coworkers, and we would give him little treats for being brave. (two of the employees are his Special Buddies, three he squiggles at hopefully but they don’t treat him any different from the other fish, and one he actively hides from).

he adopted the powerhead in the corner of his tank as his favorite sitting spot because it’s right next to where we open the lid to feed, and because i often stand there to talk to customers or run water tests. i feel his main purpose in doing this is to squiggle at me, but it also puts him right at eye level with customers, who love him.

he always enjoyed snuffling fingers, but i found out he also likes to be held and petted when he just sort of…inserted himself into my hand one day. i try not to cuddle him when anyone can see, because i don’t want customers thinking they can do it. (he would let them. but this is a store NOT A TOUCH TANK DAMMIT 😤)

nowadays, he’s SO well-socialized that the state aquarium keeps trying to buy him. (or at least, our liason to the state aquarium keeps telling me how they’d decorate his tank, what they’d write on his plaque, what a good exhibit he’d make because he doesn’t hide, how he’s so pretty, how he’s going to get so impressively big, etc) but HE’S NOT FOR SALE I WILL NOT GIVE UP THE CHILD