Mastacembelus albomaculatus

Mastacembelus albomaculatus is one of the spiny eels from Lake Tanganyika. They need sufficient hiding places between the rocks. Feeding this species requires some special attention!

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Mastacembelus albomaculatus

Mastacembelus albomaculatus can be found throughout the lake, where they seek shelter in holes and crevices among the rocks.

To provide a suitable home for the beautiful eel, the aquarium must include sufficient hiding places created by rock formations. The Mastacembelus albomaculatus thrives best when kept either alone or in groups of at least six specimens. If you wish to keep a group of at least six Mastacembelus albomaculatus, your aquarium should be a minimum of 140 cm wide and hold at least 300 liters of water. The ideal water conditions for the Mastacembelus albomaculatus are a pH of 8.5 to 9.0 and a kH of 8.0 to 14.

Synonyms:
Afromastacembelus albomaculatus, Caecomastacembelus albomaculatus

Length:
22 cm – 22 cm

Aquarium:
120 cm – 240 liter

Diet

The diet of these fish in the wild is diverse; they primarily consume young fish, eggs, insects, larvae, earthworms, and more. In an aquarium, they also thrive on a varied diet, which includes flake food, fine granules, and white mosquito larvae, among others. This type of food is typically their favorite.

Habitat

Mastacembelus albomaculatus lives mainly between rocks.

Diet

Feeding eels is a unique task. Eels typically do not snatch food quickly, so it is essential to feed them by hand, especially if you have other fish in your aquarium. If you acquired your eel from a fellow aquarist, it likely already knows how to feed by hand. However, if you purchased it from an aquarium shop, you may need to teach it to feed this way yourself.

Feeding eels separately is important because they can be quite shy when other fish are swimming around vigorously. If you don’t feed them separately, they may not get enough food, which is something we want to avoid.

Breeding Mastacembelus albomaculatus

This spiny eel lays its eggs in a hole or tight space on the glass where other fish cannot reach them.

Author

John Ponsen

Copyright images

Suephoto.com (original website no longer available)

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Additional information

Family

Genus

Species

albomaculatus

Synonym

Afromastacembelus albomaculatus, Caecomastacembelus albomaculatus

Character

Breeding behaviour

Diet

Zone

Origin

Country

, , ,

ecosystem

Minimum length

18

Length maximum

22

Temperature minimum

24

Temperature maximum

26

pH minimum

8.5

pH maximum

9.0

GH minimum

7

GH max

11