Mastacembelus brichardi

The Congo Blind Eel

Mastacembelus brichardi is a rare species of the Mastacembelus genus. Many people don’t even know they exist.

Mastacembelus brichardi are nearly eyeless, have almost no pigment, and come from extreme habitats. These eels live their mysterious lives in the lower Congo River in Africa, the deepest river in the world. Here, the currents are so strong and unpredictable that it is dangerous to traverse by boat. The extreme currents form an underwater landscape that just contains rocks and crevices. The tremendous currents act as effective barriers to fish population movement, which has evolutionarily isolated these eels. It is a special place for isolated, functionally weird, and blind fish.

Their habitat information tells us many useful things about keeping them in captivity that’s a bit different compared to other species:

• They come from highly oxygenated environments.
  • Fast flowing water has increased surface area for oxygen exchange, increasing the dissolved oxygen available for fish. For my M. brichardi, I provide surface agitation with an air stone and point my filter outflow just slightly upwards.
• The landscape is composed of rocky crevices.
  • M. brichardi spend the majority of their time in the confines of rocks. Given a choice, they choose rocks over wood and other hard scape materials. I’ve made the rock crevices in their tank face outwards so I often still see them and they poke their faces out of the rocks into the current.
• The strong current is a large aspect of their lifestyle.
  • Despite being small eels,

***I don’t have very many good photos of my M. brichardi because they are so shy and spastic!***

Resources:

The Congo River: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_River