Short-finned eel
species of fish
The short-finned eel (Anguilla australis), also known as the shortfin eel, is one of the 15 species of eel in the family Anguillidae. It is native to the lakes, dams and coastal rivers of south-eastern Australia, New Zealand, and much of the South Pacific, including New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island, Tahiti, and Fiji.
Description
The body of the adult short-finned eel is long and snakelike, roughly tubular and the head is small, with the jaws reaching back to below the eye or further. The dorsal (top) and anal (bottom) fins are of roughly equal length. The colour varies considerably from one individual to another; a deep olive-green is typical but it can be much lighter; golden or even (rarely) yellowish. There are no markings of note, but the underside is pale, often silvery, and the fins greenish. When full grown, they reach about 90 cm (2 ft 11 in). The short-finned eel has a typical regeneration time of 15 to 30 years for females and it reaches a maximum size of about 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) and 3 kg (6.6 lb). Males tend to be slower growing and reach a smaller adult size.
Anguillid eels are undifferentiated gonochoristic fish.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2711492. The Library of Congress control number is sh2005006138. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Short-finned eel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.