Scientific name: Our common Japanese white eel, the scientific name is Auguilla japonica, the English name is Japanese eel.
Classification status: Taxonomy of fish is divided into two phyla, respectively, the scleractinians and cartilaginous fishes, belonging to the scleractinian fishes have hard endoskeletons; eel that is belongs to the scleractinian fish phyla, eels, eels, eel suborder, eels, eels, eel family. The eel is a member of the order Scleractinia, the suborder Eel, and the family Eelidae.
Habitat: The eel is a periphyton freshwater fish, which is highly adaptable to seawater, but can also live in freshwater. They usually live in rivers, lakes, ponds, swamps or estuaries, hiding in rocky shores or earth holes during the day and coming out to feed at night, belonging to nocturnal fish.
Size: The eel's body is long and slender, like a snake, and belongs to the long-banded type, which is also called the eel type.
Body color: The color of the eel's body will change according to the different habitats; the color of the eel's body is different at different ages; the color of the young eel is yellowish-green, and the color of the young eel will change to silver-gray once it reaches the reproductive stage; the color of the female eel is lighter than that of the male eel at the same age. Artificial culture of eel has dark green, brown, pale black, etc., in which the blue is the most popular with consumers.
Size: The wild eel is about 60-90 centimeters long and weighs about one kilogram, and up to 130 centimeters long and weighs about five kilograms. However, most of the Japanese white eels that we usually eat are adult eels that are artificially bred, usually about 40-50 centimeters in length and weighing about 150-500 grams, which is between six eels and two eels and one kilogram.
Movement: The eel's swimming style belongs to a special serpentine type in the movement of fish, also called eel-type, because the body is long and the caudal fins are undeveloped, and the eel swims in an S-shaped curve forward, like a snake crawling, with an hourly speed of about 2-4 kilometers per hour, which is slower than that of the sailfish that travels 80 kilometers an hour.
Eating: Eel is a carnivorous animal, its teeth small sickle-shaped, insects, small fish, fish eggs, small waterfowl to eat, and even some of the humus in the water also do not let go of; artificially raised eel to eat floating material and powder and other artificial bait; the most special is the mature male and female eel, in the swim back to the sea to spawn the journey, is not eaten!
Lifespan: Wild eels can live up to ten years, with the longest ones reaching fifty years; however, farmed eels are usually sold within a year. How do you know how old an eel is? We can see from the eel's scales to see the wheel of the year, you can also take out the eel after the death of the eel otolith to do a slice of the test, the eel ear otolith, there is like a tree like the wheel of the circle pattern, a circle represents a year, counting the number of eels know the real age of the eel.
Scales: Just now, we mentioned the scales of the eel, you must want to ask: "Does the eel have scales? The answer is yes! The eel's scales are very small and soft, and are hidden under the skin, so if you don't look closely, you may not realize it!
Sex: How can eels tell the difference between male and female? Tell you a very simple method oh! Generally speaking, eels of the same age, female eels are larger than male eels, and the body color is lighter.
The eel's mucus: the eel's body surface often secretes mucus, which has a protective effect, because the eel's skin can also absorb oxygen in the air, so the eel out of the water, as long as the mucus on the surface of the body does not dry up, can keep a period of time without death.
River descent: The eel's habit of swimming from freshwater to the ocean in order to spawn is called "river descent". Generally speaking, there are a lot of fish that swim back to the ocean. The reasons for swimming back to the ocean include: firstly, to find the right water temperature; secondly, to look for food; and thirdly, to look for a place to spawn. The eel belongs to the third type of searching for spawning place.
Long-distance traveler: The eel is the most famous long-distance traveler among fishes because it swims more than 5,000 kilometers back to the sea to spawn, which is the longest distance among fishes.
The life of an eel:
When an eel's eggs hatch in the sea, it is called a "Narrow Headed Juvenile", and is about 1-2 centimeters in length, and is transparent and resembles a willow leaf, which is also known as a "Willow Leaf Eel", and drifts along with the tides of the sea to eat.
When the willow leaf eel metamorphoses into a transparent baby eel, it is called "eel thread". At this time, the baby eel already has the shape of an eel, and is about four or five centimeters long and as thin as a thread, so it is called "eel thread". Because the eel is still transparent at this time, it is also called a "glass eel"
Baby eels drift along with the sea water, and it takes one to three years before they can swim to the river, and then they grow up in a freshwater environment. The body color of the baby eel is yellowish green at the beginning, which is also called "yellow eel", and when it enters the reproductive stage, its body color will change to silver gray, which is also called "silver eel".
Between October and January of each year, the mature eel will swim down the river to the deep sea to spawn, and then die of exhaustion.