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eel are fearsome ray-finned fish that resemble snakes and live in both salt and fresh water. These fish live in waters all over the world, which puts them in close contact with many other sea creatures. With their fearsome looks and sharp teeth, it’s common for someone to ask, What do eels eat?
A quick look at the eel’s diet, their hunting habits, and their predators provides a solid foundation for understanding these creatures. In some cases they are quite frightening creatures and in others they are almost sympathetic.
What foods do eels eat?
Eels eat fish, crustaceans and mollusks. They are carnivorous predators that eat a very diverse diet, including just about any marine animal smaller than them. Eels are great hunters, but they are also wise enough to avoid creatures that can harm them.
Here is a list of the creatures that eel will consume most common:
Eels eat a wide variety of foods, but their diet is slightly different when in fresh water than when in salt water. In particular, they will have access to more insects when in freshwater areas, but eels can prey on more diverse marine life when in the saltwater.
Baby eel, too called elvers, spend the first weeks of their lives consuming a variety of foods based on where they live. In fresh water they mainly eat insects and very small fish. At sea, however, they will be somewhat herbivorous, feed on plankton until they are big enough to consume an adult diet due to the lack of access to insects.
Eels consume a lot of food and survive as effective predators wherever they live. Also, they tend to eat varying amounts given their area. For example, freshwater eels as pets are usually fed about once a day, but saltwater eels are only fed about 3-4 times a week. However, the diet of the latter eel is richer and more nutritious.
In the wild, eels hunt when they need to, and they can go several weeks without food if food is scarce.
How do eels hunt?
Eels are cunning creatures that rely on their fast swimming and thin profile to stalk prey. For the most part, eels hunt at night, using low visibility to their advantage to find prey. After all, they have poor eyesight, but they make up for it with a powerful sense of smell.
Usually, eels hunt near the area where they live. Eels will often reside near the bottom of a body of water or in rocky outcroppings, waiting for something to come along for them to eat. They will only attempt to attack smaller prey for fear of getting hurt.
Eels will also cruise along reefs to find prey, using a slime coating to allow them to slide through small gaps without being scraped or cut. Interestingly, eels don’t always hunt alone. In particular, the moray eels have been found hunting together in groups to viciously attack predators with their powerful bites. Moray eels often wrap their bodies around their prey to catch them and then eat them whole.
Moray eels can also hunt with other fish, such as groupers. This is a rare opportunity of two fish working together hunting. The moray eel is able to chase fish from smaller areas that the grouper cannot reach, and the grouper can also scare prey into the waiting jaws of the eel. This highly unusual hunting system has been the subject of many studies and is even more intriguing when you consider that the grouper is a predator of small moray eels!
Which predators eat eels?
Fresh and saltwater eels face a variety of predators. Their predators are usually larger or more cunning sea creatures, as well as a few outliers. We’re going to combine the list of eel predators to include both freshwater and saltwater threats, including:
Each of these creatures poses a threat to the eel in the wild. Humans are common predators of eels and use them as ingredients in dishes.
In fact, entire farming operations have been set up to raise eels so that they can be fattened, slaughtered and sent to the restaurants where they will be served in a variety of dishes. Places like Japan are known for using eels in their food, but eels are starting to take hold in other places as well.
In this sense, humans are generally the deadliest predators for eels.
Are eels dangerous to humans?
As with many strong predators, people will always wonder if certain animals pose a threat to them. In the case of eels, some species can be dangerous. However, eels don’t like to attack larger creatures than them. In most cases when people have been hurt by eels, it is because they got too close to the fish for their own good.
Stories have emerged of people having their fingers bitten off by moray eels while trying to feed them or a infected bite of them while swimming. Given the strength of an eel’s bite and a human’s instinct to retreat once bitten, it’s no wonder that the eel’s bite often causes more damage to their soft tissue.
Electric eelAlthough it is not a true eel, it can also be dangerous if you suffer from it. their shock can in rare cases cause immediate death, but a minor shock can cause a person underwater to struggle to surface and drown. In short, leave wild animals alone and chances are you won’t be attacked.
Eels prefer to eat smaller fish, crustaceans and insects, depending on where they live. Eels may look like ferocious creatures, but they don’t feed as much and don’t attack humans when seen. Some people breed eels for food and others keep them as pets. These ray-finned fish are interesting, intelligent and very capable hunters.
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