ROBERT SCHNECK: Eel explorations

Hi Jon,
If you have a copy of the medical journal Surgery Volume 135, Issue 1, January 2004, turn to page 110:


Traumatic rectal perforation by an eel Siu Fai Lo FHKAM, Sin Hang Wong MBBS, Lok Sang Leung FRCS, In Chak Law FHKAM and Andrew Wai Chun Yip FHKAM


From the Department of Surgery, Kwong Wah Hospital, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Accepted 22 February 2003. ; Available online 20 December 2003


Sven Kullander, a Swedish icthyologist, followed up the story in his blog Fish Matters
06 May 2009
Eel out swamp eel in
Consulting the source paper for the rectum-eating eel (Siu Fai Lo, Sin Hang Wong, Lok Sang Leung, In Chak Law, Andrew Wai Chun Yip, Traumatic rectal perforation by an eel, Surgery, Volume 135, Issue 1, January 2004, Pages 110-111) where the fish is not identified further than to "eel", it appears from the photograph there, which is very small and in low resolution, that this is not an eel at all, but more likely a swamp eel, apparently Monopterus albus, a common food fish in China where it is sold alive in the markets. This identification is suggested by the very slender tip of the tail, and somewhat inflated gular region. Thanks to Ralf Britz, expert on this order of fishes, the Synbranchiformes, for inspiring me to look at the original paper and first suggesting the identification. The swamp eel portrayed here, was never inside a human, though:.
http://ichthyologos.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html



Robert