Environment / Climate / Range
Marine; freshwater; brackish; demersal; catadromous (Ref. 51243); depth range 0 - 1 m (Ref. 57178). Tropical; 10°S - 43°S, 141°E - 161°E (Ref. 57367)
Size / Weight / Age
Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 165 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 82796); 158.0 cm TL (female); common length : 100.0 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 5259); max. published weight: 22.0 kg (Ref. 82796); max. reported age: 41 years (Ref. 6390)
Characterized by mottled color and tooth bands with a separated inner series. The only other species within its range with these characters is Anguilla marmorata, but that species has a longer dorsal fin (Ref. 9828).
Asia and Oceania: New Guinea, eastern Australia, including Tasmania, Lord Howe Island and New Caledonia.
Occur in coastal lagoons, rivers, streams, lakes, swamps and farm dams, but prefers riverine habitats (Ref. 26509, 44894). Usually found in deep waters of reservoirs well away from the shore. Mature adults undertake annual spawning migrations to oceanic waters (Ref. 44894). Mainly nocturnal feeders. Feed on crustaceans, mollusks, aquatic and terrestrial insects, fish including elvers and native trout. Maximum size for female longfin eel taken from Ref. 6390. A reasonably good angling fish which may grow to 22 kilograms (Ref. 44894).
Allen, G.R., 1989. Freshwater fishes of Australia. T.F.H. Publications, Inc., Neptune City, New Jersey. (Ref. 5259)
IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 96402)
CITES (Ref. 94142)
Threat to humans
Fisheries: commercial; aquaculture: commercial; gamefish: yes
ReferencesAquacultureAquaculture profileStrainsGeneticsAllele frequenciesHeritabilityDiseasesProcessingMass conversion
Estimates of some properties based on models
Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82805
= 0.5000 [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00076 (0.00036 - 0.00160), b=3.17 (3.00 - 3.34), based on LWR estimates for this Genus-body shape (Ref. 93245
Trophic Level (Ref. 69278
): 3.6 ±0.56 se; Based on food items.
Resilience (Ref. 69278
): Very Low, minimum population doubling time more than 14 years (tm=8-30; tmax=41, Fec=5 million).
Vulnerability (Ref. 59153
): Very high vulnerability (87 of 100) .