Here is a clue as to how Waldorf got his name! We did try to offer him some lunch, but as expected, he was too busy getting used to his new home! I hope the video gets you excited to come and visit him in the aquarium when we open back up in March!īY the way.
Many of our current kelp inhabitants were very curious about the new arrival and can be seen checking him out in the video. It took several keepers on dry land, along with myself and Tom Holt diving in the kelp forest to get him settlĮd in. This is a habit we hope he will retain now that he is in the much larger kelp forest.īelow is a video we recently captured when releasing Waldorf into his permanent home. He quickly picked up on keepers’ cues to surface to the top of his tank for feedings of fish. He was quite fun to work with while he went through his quarantine period over the last couple months. Waldorf is a juvenile eel and is currently only about 3 feet long. While they are gentle, they can pack a nasty bite when needed as they have some very sharp, spikey front teeth and strong jaws for crushing urchins and shellfish. They can grow up to 8 feet long and live up to 20 years in aquarium settings. They are fairly slow and have a gentle temperament. Well never fear, meet “Waldorf” our new wolf eel!Įven in the wild, Wolf eels are considered a very friendly to divers. Retrieved May 24 th, 2011, from know many visitors and staff, myself included, used to love watching the wolf eel swim through the kelp forest tank in the aquarium and were quite sad when our old eel passed away. Retrieved May 24 th, 2011 from Zaheer Kanji (December 2001). Pacific fishes of Canada Fisheries Research Board of Canada. Young and Mature Wolf Eel photo kindly provided by Erik Schauff
The parents will closely guard their offspring for a period of around sixteen weeks, until at last they hatch. Females can produce up to an astounding ten thousand eggs at once. The male will court his female first by bumping his head up against her abdomen, then enveloping her entirely with his long slender body. These creatures seek out their partners at four years of age, but will not reproduce until around seven. Wolf Eels are unique in the way they go about their lives because (despite how they may initially appear) they are in fact quite the romantics- they mate for life. Its jaw is designed especially for mowing down on hard-shelled creatures such as crustaceans, mussels, clams, sea urchins, snails, and some other fish.Īlthough full-grown Wolf Eels have next to no predators (save the occasional harbor seal), their eggs often fall prey to rockfish and Kelp Greenlings. The Wolf Eel is a rather intimidating-looking carnivore, adapted perfectly to suit its murky environment. The deepest a Wolf Eel has ever been uncovered is 225 meters below the surface. It tends to keep to shallow to medium depth waters, making its home in the hollows between rocks, which oftentimes look as though they would not be able to fit its wide head. The Wolf Eel has been found to live anywhere from Japan to the islands of Racerocks off of British Columbia’s coast. The wolf eel’s dorsal fin extends from its head to the tip of its sleek body its pectoral fins, located at the base of the head, are large and rounded. Juveniles are a startling orange marked with dark orange splotches. It is easy to differentiate between male and female wolf eels the males tend to have larger, more grotesque heads, whereas the females possess a smaller jaw and are often darker in colour. These dots may differ in size and colour depending on the individual and its gender, and are frequently surrounded by a light ring. The adult Wolf Eel ranges from light brown to dark gray in colour, with a long, dot-covered body. Sometimes referred to as the “Ugly old man of the sea,” the Wolf Eel has a bulbous head with a strong jaw and sharp teeth.
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