The Mastacembelidae are a family of

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

es, known as the spiny eels. The Mastacembelids are part of the Order

Synbranchiformes Synbranchiformes, often called swamp eels, though that name can also refer specifically to Synbranchidae, is an order of ray-finned fishes that are eel-like but have spiny rays, indicating that they belong to the superorder Acanthopterygii. ...

, the swamp eels, which are part of the

Actinopterygii Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class (biology), class of Osteichthyes, bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built ...

(ray-finned fishes). In an evaluation of the family in 2004, the subfamilies of Mastacembelidae were found to not be well supported and were rejected. Also, the genera ''Caecomastacembelus'' and ''Aethiomastacembelus'' were placed in

synonymy A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

with ''Mastacembelus''. These fish originate from Africa, and southern and eastern Asia. Spiny eels generally inhabit soft-bottomed habitats in fresh and occasionally

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

water. Some species burrow in the substrate during the day or for certain months and have been found buried in soil in drying periods. These fish have an

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 20 families, 164 genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

-like body. The largest species can reach a maximum length of . Very characteristic of this group is the long nose appendage with two tubulated nostrils. Mastacembelids have a series of well-separated dorsal spines on their back, hence the name of their family, spiny eels. In some areas these fish are regarded as

food fish Many species of fish are caught by humans and consumed as food in virtually all regions around the world. Their meat has been an important dietary source of protein and other nutrients in the human diet. The English language does not have a s ...

. Several species of Mastacembelidae are

aquarium An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...

fish, such as the fire eel.

References

Fish of Africa Fish of Asia {{Symbranchiformes-stub