# Do eels really have to go 800 miles to spawn? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 28, 2009, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-eels-really-have-to-go-800-miles-to-spawn/511920 "2009-09-28T23:17:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Never\_Say\_Dice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee59a6/32.png) [@Never\_Say\_Dice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Never_Say_Dice)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-eels-really-have-to-go-800-miles-to-spawn/511920/1 "2009-09-28T23:17:01Z")
Can they be raised in the aquarium, for example, or in farms like trout? Hard to understand why they would go 3000 miles when there must be other suitable places around with more of their kind. What has the Sargasso Sea got that nowhere else has? ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-eels-really-have-to-go-800-miles-to-spawn/511920/2 "2009-09-29T10:40:04Z")
> [@Never\_Say\_Dice](#): > > Can they be raised in the aquarium, for example, or in farms like trout? > Hard to understand why they would go 3000 miles when there must be other suitable places around **with more of their kind**. What has the Sargasso Sea got that nowhere else has? My emphasis above. This is where you’re going wrong. What the Sargasso Sea has that nowhere else has is spawning eels (of the right species). A brief internet search on eel farming indicates raising eels in aquariums is still out of the question: > [@](#): > > The peculiar habits of Anguilla eels have mystified people for centuries. No one has ever found ripe eggs in Anguilla eels. All other freshwater fish contain ripe eggs at some seasons, but never eels. How then do eels reproduce? In fact, eels breed in the sea, far from land, and their sexual organs do not mature until after the adult eels migrate back from the rivers into the sea. That is why no eggs or sperm can ever be found in an eel captured in freshwater. [http://www1.american.edu/TED/eelfarm.htm](http://www1.american.edu/TED/eelfarm.htm) If they could, they would, as eel farming is an important industry currently requiring a supply of glass eels caught in the wild. ---
**Author:** ![Never\_Say\_Dice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee59a6/32.png) [@Never\_Say\_Dice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Never_Say_Dice)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-eels-really-have-to-go-800-miles-to-spawn/511920/3 "2009-09-29T15:24:49Z")
Why can’t they just flood the eel farm with seawater at the same timing they would run into it in the wild? Maybe nobody’s bothered. I wouldn’t know, but then I’ve never heard eel was especially tasty, just a “delicacy” which means expensive and not tasty.