Tire Track Eel

This little eel is native to India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and a few other countries in that area. I first became aware of this cool creature when I was involved with the aquarium hobby. I only had one "tire track eel," but it didn't work out too well. I had that particular tank packed with aggressive eaters and the bottom-dwellers and scavengers took care of the lower section, as well. That type of scenario was especially bad for them, since these types of eels like to dwell close to the bottom and even burrow into the gravel, at times. Basically, I should have never bought the Tire Track Eel, but they are hard to turn down when you have fish tanks. I'm assuming they do well in less competitive tanks...

I would explain how they got their name, but their appearance should be self-explanatory. You know, like it has tire tracks imprinted on it? LOL! Anyway, they are nocturnal for the most part, and they do prefer live foods, going by what I've read.  Going by what little I have seen of them, they definitely seem shy and/or timid. Since they do prefer darkness, it is sort of pointless to have them in a community fish tank. When it comes to common fish foods that a person would typically use for home aquariums, they also seem to be picky eaters. However, if you have a tank with a bunch of tiny fish in it (like the small livebearers known as guppies), I've heard that they will come out and eat them at night; ha! Other than that, I don't really know very much about this eel. I just think they look cool, so I posted it here; cheers!

Update: A few years after I posted this, it seems that the Internet has shifted into calling these little aquatic creatures "Zig-Zag Eels." Uh, okay, I guess... I even changed the Wikipedia link below to reflect that name change. I mean, these eels are also still called "Tire Track," just saying that now it seems their primary, most commonly used name is "Zig Zag."  I guess it doesn't really make a difference because it's just silly semantics. It is what it is, as they say... 

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Image Credit: Using the Google Image search with the 'free to use & share' function. The 2nd pic is from Wikimedia Commons. Source = Zig-zag eel - Wikipedia

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