Smith's witch eel
Facciolella smithi
The Smith's witch eel features a slender, elongated body with a pale, translucent coloration and a distinctively long dorsal fin.
This page includes AI-generated images. Why am I seeing AI images?
About the Smith's witch eel
This is a deep-water witch eel (duckbill eel) that was only described recently, from off the Kerala coast in the Arabian Sea. It's a long, ribbon-bodied, soft-sediment bottom-dweller with that weird duckbill snout and small deep-sea eyes - super cool, but not something you can realistically keep in a normal home aquarium.
Also known as
Quick Facts
Size
61.7 cm TL
Temperament
Semi-aggressive
Difficulty
Expert
Min Tank Size
500 gallons
Lifespan
unknown
Origin
Western Indian Ocean (Arabian Sea, off Kerala, India)
Diet
Carnivore - likely small fishes and invertebrates (deep-sea benthic predator)
Water Parameters
8-14°C
7.8-8.4
8-12 dGH
Need a heater for this species?
This species needs 8-14°C in a 500 gallon tank. Use our heater calculator to find the right wattage.
Calculate heater sizeCare Notes
- Give it a deep, soft sand bed (3-6 in) with lots of shaded rubble or PVC burrows - they want to disappear, and sharp rock right on the sand is a skin-scrape waiting to happen.
- Run the tank like a calm, dim corner of the reef: 24-26 C (75-79 F), salinity 1.024-1.026, pH 8.1-8.4, and keep nitrate under ~10-20 ppm because they go off food fast when the water gets dirty.
- Lock the lid down tight and cover every gap around plumbing - these eels can thread through ridiculous openings and you will find them on the floor if you get lazy.
- Feeding: offer small meaty stuff on tongs after lights-out (mysis, chopped shrimp, squid, clam, silverside pieces); start with live or freshly thawed and wiggle it until it grabs, then taper to frozen-only once it is settled.
- Do not keep it with aggressive pickers (large wrasses, triggers, big hawkfish) or anything that will nip its head when it is out; also assume tiny fish and shrimp are snacks once it figures them out.
- Use gentle intakes or a guard sponge on pumps and overflows - they cruise the bottom and will wedge themselves into places that look safe until they are not.
- Watch for sand-related issues: coarse substrate and high flow can cause nose and belly abrasions, which turn into infections; if you see redness, move to finer sand and treat early in a hospital tank.
- Breeding is basically a non-starter in home tanks - they are deepwater spawners and you are not going to stumble into larvae rearing by accident, so focus on long-term stability and steady feeding.
Compatibility
Good Tankmates
- Medium-to-larger, calm open-water fish that mind their own business - think reef-safe wrasses (like fairy/flasher wrasses) or a mellow halichoeres type. They move around but usually do not pick on an eel that stays tucked in.
- Dwarf angels with decent attitudes (coral beauty, flame angel) - they cruise rockwork but usually are too busy grazing to harass a witch eel. Just watch for the occasional jerk angel that starts pecking at anything that pokes its head out.
- Tangs and rabbitfish (yellow tang, kole tang, foxface) - good midwater herbivores that do not compete for the eel's meaty foods. They are also not easy for the eel to swallow, which is the big thing.
- Bigger, non-nippy sand and rock perchers like a lawnmower blenny or a larger goby that is not tiny (watchman goby sized or up). They usually ignore the eel as long as everyone is well fed and there are plenty of hiding spots.
- Tougher, spiny bottom neighbors that will not get mistaken as food - like a medium pincushion urchin or larger serpent stars (not the tiny brittle stars). Not fish, but in real tanks they tend to coexist fine because the eel is more about grabbing meaty bites than messing with armor.
- Other larger, chill fish in the 'not bite-sized' category - cardinals and chromis can work only if they are big enough. The rule is simple: if it can fit in the eel's mouth during a night cruise, it is on the menu sooner or later.
Avoid
- Tiny fish that sleep in the open or perch low - small gobies (neon/clown gobies), small blennies, tiny cardinals. Smith's witch eels are sneaky nighttime hunters and a lot of folks lose these 'cute little guys' first.
- Nippy or territorial rock bruisers that will harass anything sticking out of a hole - dottybacks, many damsels, and especially a mean six-line wrasse. They stress the eel and can keep it from feeding.
- Big aggressive predators that will treat the eel like a snack or a rival - large groupers, big hawkfish, big triggers. Even if the eel is semi-aggressive, it is still a soft, grab-able noodle to the wrong tankmate.
Where they come from
Smith's witch eel (Facciolella smithi) is one of those deep-ish, soft-bottom eel types you almost never see in typical reef circles. They show up from Indo-Pacific waters and are tied to sand and mud flats off the shelf, where they spend a lot of their life buried with just the business end sticking out.
That origin story explains basically everything about keeping them: they want substrate, they want dim light, and they want food that comes to them without having to compete.
Setting up their tank
Think "secure sand bed and zero escape routes" before you think decor. A witch eel that feels exposed will either stop eating or start testing every gap in your lid.
- Tank size: I would not bother under 75 gallons, and bigger is calmer. A long footprint beats tall height.
- Substrate: fine sand, deep enough that they can bury comfortably (I aim for 3-4 inches minimum). Coarse crushed coral is a fast way to end up with scrapes.
- Rockwork: keep it stable and sitting on the glass or on supports, not perched on sand they can undermine.
- Flow: moderate is fine, but avoid blasting the sand bed into dunes. They like still-ish bottom zones.
- Lighting: they do better with subdued light and caves/shadowed areas. Bright reef lighting tends to keep them hidden and jumpy.
- Filtration: heavy, because you will be feeding meaty foods. Oversized skimmer and good mechanical filtration you actually clean.
Lid is not optional. Seal every cable gap and overflow opening. These eels can thread through holes you would swear are too small, especially at night.
Skip sharp decor. PVC elbows hidden under sand can work as "anchor points" if you want, but avoid jagged rock right where they burrow.
I also like having a "feeding zone" - a sandy area in front where I can drop food with tongs. If you build a reef wall right up to the front glass, you will hate your life trying to target feed an animal that only shows a head at 10 pm.
What to feed them
They are predators and scavengers that go for meaty stuff. The trick is getting food to the eel instead of letting faster fish steal everything.
- Best staples: thawed shrimp, clam, squid, scallop, chunks of marine fish (not freshwater feeders).
- Great "get them started" foods: live blackworms (in a dish), live ghost shrimp, small live marine shrimp if you can get them.
- Prepared options: some will take sinking carnivore sticks once settled, but do not count on pellets being the whole diet.
Use long feeding tongs or a feeding stick and place the food right at the burrow entrance. I feed after lights-out with just room light or a dim flashlight. Way less drama.
Start with smaller pieces than you think. If you drop a big chunk, they may grab it and retreat, then spit it out in the burrow and you get a mystery ammonia bump a day later. Once they are eating confidently, you can offer larger chunks.
Go easy on oily foods and do not overdo silversides. Variety helps, and cleaner marine meats foul the water less.
How they behave and who they get along with
Most of the time you will see a snout and eyes, maybe the top of the head, poking out of the sand. They are ambush hunters, not open-water swimmers, so do not expect a "pet eel" cruising the glass all day.
Temperament-wise, they are not usually aggressive toward fish too big to swallow, but anything small enough is on the menu sooner or later. Also, they are not built to compete at feeding time.
- Good tankmates: calm, non-nippy fish that do not harass the sand bed (bigger gobies that stay out of their face, rabbitfish, some peaceful wrasses that sleep in rocks, not sand).
- Avoid: aggressive feeders (triggers, big hawkfish, many puffers), fin-nippers, sand-sifters that constantly bulldoze their burrow area, and tiny fish/shrimp you want to keep.
- Inverts: snails and most crabs are usually ignored, but small ornamental shrimp are a gamble.
If your witch eel is always buried and never taking food, it is usually not "shy by nature" so much as "stressed or outcompeted." Fix the environment and feeding access first.
Breeding tips
Realistically, breeding Smith's witch eel in home aquariums is not something the hobby has nailed down. Like a lot of eel-type fish, they have a weird larval stage in the wild (leptocephalus-style), and captive spawning reports are basically nonexistent.
If you ever do keep a pair long-term, the best you can do is give them a stable, seasonal-feeling routine (steady temps, consistent feeding, low stress) and watch for changes in body shape and behavior. But I would go into this one assuming you are buying a display animal, not a breeding project.
Common problems to watch for
- Refusing food: usually stress (bright light, no sand, too much traffic), bullying, or you are offering the wrong size/type of food.
- Escapes: tiny gaps in lids, overflow teeth, plumbing openings. Nighttime is prime escape time.
- Scrapes and infections: from rough substrate or sharp rock. These can spiral fast in marine systems if water quality slips.
- Starvation by competition: they can look "fine" while slowly losing weight because tangs/wrasses steal every bite.
- Water quality swings: heavy meaty feeding can spike ammonia/nitrate fast if you are not on top of export and detritus removal.
If you ever find one out of the tank, keep the skin wet with tank water and get it back in quickly. Then immediately hunt down the escape point. If they found it once, they will try it again.
The biggest success factor I have seen is giving them a real sand bed and a calm feeding routine. Once they learn "food shows up right here," they get a lot bolder, and you will actually see the animal you bought instead of a lump of sand with eyes.
Similar Species
Other marine semi-aggressive species you might be interested in.
African conger (Japonoconger africanus)
Japonoconger africanus
This is a smallish deep-water conger eel from the eastern Atlantic (Gabon down to the Congo), and it lives way deeper than anything we normally keep at home. It is a predator that eats fish and crustaceans, and while it is a cool species on paper, it is basically not an aquarium fish in any normal sense due to its deep-water habitat and lack of established captive care info.
Aleutian skate
Bathyraja aleutica
This is a big, cold-water deep-slope skate from the North Pacific that cruises muddy bottoms and eats chunky benthic prey like crabs and shrimp. The really cool bit is its egg-laying skate life - it does distinct pairing (the classic skate "embrace") and drops those tough egg cases on the seafloor. Not an aquarium fish at all unless you're basically running a public-aquarium-style chilled system.
Arabian spiny eel
Notacanthus indicus
Notacanthus indicus is a deep-sea spiny eel (family Notacanthidae; not a true eel) known from the Arabian Sea on the continental slope at roughly ~960–1,046 m depth, with reported maximum length around 20 cm TL; it is a deep-water bycatch species and not established in the aquarium trade.
Atlantic pomfret
Brama brama
Brama brama is the Atlantic pomfret (aka Ray's bream) - a deep-bodied, open-ocean pelagic fish that cruises around in small schools and follows water temps. It is a legit big, wild marine species (not an aquarium fish) that eats other small sea critters like fish and squid, and it ranges across a huge chunk of the Atlantic plus parts of the Indian and South Pacific.
Australian sawtail catshark
Figaro boardmani
Figaro boardmani is a small, deepwater Australian catshark with these cool saw-like ridges of spiny denticles along the tail and a neat pattern of dark saddle bands. It lives way down on the outer continental shelf and slope, so its natural water is cold, dim, and stable - totally not a typical home-aquarium fish. Diet-wise its a predator that goes after fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods.
Barlip reef-eel
Uropterygius kamar
Uropterygius kamar is a smaller moray (a reef-eel) that spends its time tucked into rockwork and coral rubble, poking its head out when it smells food. FishBase notes it comes in two color morphs and lives on reef-associated rubble areas, so in a tank it really appreciates lots of tight caves and crevices. Like most morays its whole vibe is secretive ambush predator, not open-water swimmer.
More to Explore
Discover more marine species.
Abe's eelpout
Japonolycodes abei
Japonolycodes abei is a temperate, deepwater demersal eelpout (family Zoarcidae) endemic to Japan (Kumano-nada Sea reported; other sources also report Sagami Bay and Tosa Bay). It is the only species in the genus Japonolycodes and occurs roughly 40-300 m depth, making it an uncommon/atypical aquarium species.
Banded stargazer
Kathetostoma binigrasella
This is a New Zealand stargazer that lives half-buried in sand or mud with its eyes pointed up, waiting to rocket upward and nail passing prey. It has those neat dark saddle-bands across the back (especially as a juvenile), and like other stargazers it is venomous with spines near the gill cover/pectoral area - definitely a look-dont-touch fish.
Banggai Cardinalfish
Pterapogon kauderni
Banggai cardinals just sort of hover like little underwater satellites, and the bold black bars with those long, polka-dotted fins look unreal under reef lighting. They're super chill most of the time, but once a pair forms you'll see real "fish drama," and the male will even mouthbrood the babies like a champ.
Barred snake eel
Quassiremus polyclitellum
This is a temperate, bottom-hugging snake eel from New Zealand that lives out on rocky ground in moderately deep water. Its "snake eel" body plan means it is built for slipping through cracks and tight spots, not cruising the water column like most fish. It is absolutely not an aquarium trade species - think "wild marine eel" more than "pet fish."
Bellfish
Johnius fuscolineatus
Johnius fuscolineatus is a small-ish inshore croaker from the western Indian Ocean that hangs around shallow coastal areas and estuaries. Like other croakers/drums (Sciaenidae), it is more of a "saltwater shoreline" fish than a typical home-aquarium species, and it is usually encountered as a wild-caught food/bycatch fish rather than a trade staple.
Ben-Tuvia's goby
Didogobius bentuvii
This is a tiny little Mediterranean goby from the Israeli coast that lives down on the bottom over muddy-sand, and it is likely a burrower. In other words, it is a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of fish - super small, demersal, and more about sneaky bottom-dweller vibes than flashy swimming.
Looking for other species?