The Pacific shortfinned eel (''Anguilla obscura''), also known as the Pacific shortfinned freshwater eel, the short-finned eel, and the South Pacific eel, is an eel in the family Anguillidae.''Anguilla obscura''
at www.fishbase.org. It was described by Albert Günther in 1871.Günther, A., 1871 (Apr.) ef. 1997''Report on several collections of fishes recently obtained for the British Museum.'' Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1871 (pt 3): 652-675, Pls. 53-70. It is a tropical,

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

eel which is known from western New Guinea, Queensland,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, the Society Islands, and possibly South Africa. The eels spend most of their lives in freshwater, but

migrate Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

to the Pacific Ocean to breed. Males can reach a maximum total length of 110 centimetres, but more commonly reach a TL of around 60 cm. The Pacific shortfinned eel is most similar to '' Anguilla australis'' (more commonly known as the Short-finned eel), and ''

Anguilla bicolor ''Anguilla bicolor'' is a species of eel in the genus ''Anguilla Anguilla ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and ...

'' (the Indonesian shortfin eel), but can be distinguished by the number of vertebrae. The Pacific shortfinned eel feeds primarily off of

bony fish Osteichthyes (), popularly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse superclass of fish that have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondrichthyes, which have skeletons primarily composed of cartilag ...

(including the genus '' Oreochromis''),Food items reported for ''Anguilla obscura''
at www.fishbase.org. crustaceans and

mollusks Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

. It is a commercial eel in subsistence

fisheries Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both ...

References

Further reading