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These fish were once very abundant along the eastern coasts of North America. They live the great majority of their lives in fresh, or brackish water rivers, streams, creeks, lakes, ponds and estuaries. We have even caught them here in our ELC pond, which is brackish.
Due to dam building and habitat loss, their numbers in some places have dropped dramatically. They are considered opportunistic carnivores, which means their diet is variable depending on what is available. Some examples of this diet include small fish, crustaceans, mollusks, insects, and worms. They also tend to hunt at night while hiding during the day.
When these eels become fully grown at 10-25 years old, they leave their home for the last time to swim out to the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean. There, they lay up to 4 million buoyant eggs. When these eggs hatch, the young head back to the coast of North America. During this time, they go through a series of developmental changes until they finally make it back to the fresh and brackish water environments where they will mature into adults.
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