Dec 7, 2009: Eels can swim, too!

So far, the gunnels are our favorite aquarium pet. Everything else is just plain mean.

Cutie pie. They’re pretty shy (or, more likely: nocturnal), and normally stay hidden under rocks and shells, but this morning there was an impromptu gunnel play period that lasted a good 20 minutes. Depending on how you look at them, gunnels either have no tail or they’re all tail, and they really make swimming look like a full body workout:

We have several different species in the aquarium. We think the little one in the photo above is a crescent gunnel.  The swimmer is maybe a bland looking saddleback? Hard to tell. The guy below is clearly a mohawk gunnel:

(note the hairy hermit in the background)