Alex Adrian, Ethan Blauner, David Rotchford, Jack Grass Environmental WANTED: Asian Swamp Eel

10/11/12 Project

The Asian Swamp Eel is otherwise known as the Monopterus albus in Latin. An interesting fact that we learned was that they are actually not true eels. They are scale-less creatures with a long body and a tapering tail and a round nose. They look somewhat like a snake but instead of a tongue they have bristle-like teeth. Their lifecycle takes place solely in freshwater either in their native China, Asia, Northern India and Burma, or in the United States. These eels came to the US after they escaped aquariums and fish farms overseas. Today, you can find them in Florida, Georgia or on the Island of Oahu in Hawaii. Another interesting fact is that all baby Asian Swamp eels are females but later in life they can switch back and forth whenever one sex is less populated. This process takes about a year but it is very helpful to the eels because they can breed indefinitely. Their favorite place to live is in a shallow wetland like a marsh, stream, reservoirs or ponds. They can tolerate both cold and warm waters and they feed on shrimp, crayfish, frogs, turtle eggs, worms and insects. Their biggest impact on the ecosystems of the world is that they accelerate the drying of shallow water bodies whenever there are a lot of eels around. They are known for disrupting the natural cycle of the Everglades National Park ecosystem and people try to capture them by creating electrical barriers that keep them contained in a small area so they can trap them. Another thing that people do is to remove the vegetation that they live and lay their eggs in so that the population will stop growing. This invasive species, along with many others in the world, disrupt the natural way of life in an ecosystem and therefore need to be returned home.