The Peacock eel is also known as the Siamese Spiny Eel, and its scientific name is Macrognathus siamensis. It belongs to the Family Mastacembelidae, the Spiny eel family. Just like many other eels, the Peacock eel has an elongated body. Wild specimens often grow up to 30 centimeters long (12 inches), but in captivity the will often stay around 15 centimeters (6 inches). The Peacock eel has a dark brown back and light brown flanks, while they belly is much lighter. You can see a fine yellow line that runs from the snout and all the way to the caudal fin. At the dorsal and caudal fins the Peacock eel is decorated with five eye-spots. The colors and patterns will vary between geographically separated populations.

The native environment for the Peacock eel is slow flowing and densely grown rivers and streams in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Sumatra and Malaysia. It is a bottom living creature that likes to bury itself in silt, sand or fine gravel, and only display a small part of its head. It prefers to forage for food at dusk. Wild Peacock eel will eat worms, crustaceans and larvae and keeping them on a similar diet of live food in the aquarium is recommended. Live brine shrimp, blood worms, mosquito larvae and cyclops are all good suggestions.

A small Peacock eel needs to be housed in an aquarium that is at least 61 centimeters long (24 inches) and has a volume of 75 liters (20 gallons). If your Peacock eel grows larger, you must ...

Continue to read all article at : http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/universal-viewid372.html