Does anyone on this forum have any information regarding fresh water eels? Can they be stocked with other species of fish? Will they reproduce?
I have a friend from Germany (lives in Ohio now) who wants to stock these eels in his 1/2 acre pond which is approx. 22-24 ft. deep. He is seeking any helpful information. Thanks.

The only freshwater eels that I am familiar with are actually migratory, I forget the proper term but it is the opposite to salmon (androgenous?)where they spawn in fresh then migrate to salt. Our eels spawn in the Sargasso Sea then migrate to the various freshwater sites around the world, where they live out their lifespan, then return to the Sargasso to spawn and die. Right now there is a very serious problem with the world wide eel population crashing, to the point that they are being declared endangered both here and in Europe. If you search on the Fish Ontario website forum there is a lot of info. Short aqnswer-no they cannot reproduce in a pond.

"Catadromous"

I have always wondered about fresh water eels as well. This seems to be the big mystry fish on the forum because no one has a clear answer on them

Watergirl :

Called the American Eel it is the only eel found in US rivers, according to the virtual aquarium online from Virginia Tech Univ.They say that people are raising them in tanks.I assume if they can be raised in tanks then they can live in a pond.You should check out the site.Good luck. ewest

Yea Bruce, that is the magic word. They will survive and grow in a pond as they will eat anything dead or alive,survive drought and heat, but they will not reproduce. If you can find a source of elvers, you can grow them in a pond, just feed them with something other than bass minnows, unless of course you have a surplus of bass....

If freshwater eels are migratory, how do they get into an inland pond with no access to watershed? Will they do any damage to a LMB/BG pond? I have seen 2 in my pond about a foot & 1/2 long.

You can catch american eels quite easily in the Mohawk and Hudson rivers using nightcrawlers. I have caught many in my time. A few around 3ft long! They are slimy, slimy, slimy and don't put up that great of a fight. They do not look very appetizing to me, however, in the early 1900s they were the target of a large comercial fishery. You can still see the "traps" in the lower delware. Currently the market is for juveniles < 3". They are trapped in salt water bays and exported.

I have caught freshwater eels in several different landlocked ponds in NC and Virginia, usually catfishing at night. Don't know how they got there but with the several different locations that I have caught them would not believe that they were all stocked, especially since this is not standard American tablefare. All literature that I have seen on them though has said that the are migratory from the ocean. The ones caught in NC were in coastal counties but the eels caught in VA were far inland. Though this doesn't answer your question Watergirl thought I would pass on an observation.

It would be kinda COOL to stock some of these in my "drying" up lake...

big-pond I know you are kidding, right?

Sheeeeeet
Heck I don't know much about them thangs....I might be kidding if I found out how they REALLY are and see what they look like ...

JayMan said:

Are these the famous "Hudson River Eels?"

Yes, I suppose they are. Fishing for consumption was banned 30 years ago due to PCBs. In the 90s several groups did a lot of scientific studies on the hudson river eels since the population was undisturbed. There should be a lot of scholarly articles out there about them if you are into that sort of thing.

American eels can and will traverse land on a moist night! How far they can go is a mystery, but i have heard it can be quite a distance.