The rice-paddy eel (''Pisodonophis boro''; also known commonly as the Bengal's snake-eel, the estuary snake eel, or the snake eel) is an
eel in the family
Ophichthidae (worm-snake eels).
[''Pisodonophis boro''](_blank)
at www.fishbase.org. It was described by
Francis Buchanan-Hamilton
Francis Buchanan (15 February 1762 – 15 June 1829), later known as Francis Hamilton but often referred to as Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, was a Scottish physician who made significant contributions as a geographer, zoologist, and botanist whil ...
in 1822, originally in the genus ''
Ophisurus''.
[Hamilton, F., 1822 ]ef. 2031
EF or ef may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Ef (band), a post-rock band from Sweden
* ''Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two.'', a Japanese adult visual novel series by Minori, or its anime adaptations
Businesses and organizations
* Eagle Forum, an ...
''An account of the fishes found in the river Ganges and its branches.'' Edinburgh & London. i-vii + 1-405, Pls. 1-39. It is a
tropical,
marine
Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean.
Marine or marines may refer to:
Ocean
* Maritime (disambiguation)
* Marine art
* Marine biology
* Marine debris
* Marine habitats
* Marine life
* Marine pollution
Military
* ...
eel which is known from the
Indo-West Pacific, including
Somalia,
Tanzania,
South Africa,
India,
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
,
Indonesia,
Polynesia,
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 ...
,
Bangladesh,
Cambodia,
Kenya,
Madagascar, the
Philippines,
Malaysia,
Mozambique,
Seychelles,
Saudi Arabia,
Taiwan,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
Thailand,
Vietnam, and southern
Yemen.
It is an
anadromous
Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousan ...
species and spawns in
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 ...
, often in
rice paddies during the rainy season, earning it its common name. It also spends time in lagoons, estuaries and coastal rivers, in which it lives in burrows in the river bottom and bank. Males can reach a maximum
total length (TL) of 100 centimetres, but more commonly reach a TL of 70 cm.
The rice-paddy eel is of minor commercial interest to fisheries; it is caught in bag nets and marketed fresh.
Its diet consists 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 ...
and
crab
Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...
s such as ''
Uca annulipes'';
Food items reported for ''Pisodonophis boro''
at www.fishbase.org. as a nocturnal
Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite.
Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...
creature it forages actively during the night.
References
Ophichthidae
Fish described in 1822
{{Ophichthidae-stub