grouperhead
Active Member
Angler shares bathtub with giant eel for 33 years
A German angler has shared his bathtub with a giant eel for 33 years after his children refused to let him cook it.
Paul Richter's children have long since left home but he and wife Hannelore are so attached to "Eelfie" that he's now like one of the family.
Mr Richter said: "I caught him in 1969 in the Rhine-Herne Canal near Bochum, in North Rhine-Westphalia.
"I wanted to cook him, and took him home in a bucket while he was still alive to keep him fresh.
"But the children protested so much when they saw him in the bucket that we put him in the bath for them to play with."
He added: "We only have one bathtub, so on bath nights Eelfie has to go in the bucket. Nowadays we put the bucket in the water and he swims straight in and waits until we have finished our baths."
Marine-life expert Dr Wolfgang Gettmann says eels are normally not suited to life in a confined space but added the Mr Richter's pet eel seems healthy and well fed on a diet of red gnat larvae.
Paul's wife Hannelore says they are not sure whether Eelfie is male or female, but added: "We think of him as a he.
"He knows the procedure when one of us wants to take a bath. I hold a large bucket under the bath water and he swims into it."
Eelfie still has a way to go before he reaches old age. The oldest eel on record lived to be 88
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm...=news.quirkies
A German angler has shared his bathtub with a giant eel for 33 years after his children refused to let him cook it.
Paul Richter's children have long since left home but he and wife Hannelore are so attached to "Eelfie" that he's now like one of the family.
Mr Richter said: "I caught him in 1969 in the Rhine-Herne Canal near Bochum, in North Rhine-Westphalia.
"I wanted to cook him, and took him home in a bucket while he was still alive to keep him fresh.
"But the children protested so much when they saw him in the bucket that we put him in the bath for them to play with."
He added: "We only have one bathtub, so on bath nights Eelfie has to go in the bucket. Nowadays we put the bucket in the water and he swims straight in and waits until we have finished our baths."
Marine-life expert Dr Wolfgang Gettmann says eels are normally not suited to life in a confined space but added the Mr Richter's pet eel seems healthy and well fed on a diet of red gnat larvae.
Paul's wife Hannelore says they are not sure whether Eelfie is male or female, but added: "We think of him as a he.
"He knows the procedure when one of us wants to take a bath. I hold a large bucket under the bath water and he swims into it."
Eelfie still has a way to go before he reaches old age. The oldest eel on record lived to be 88
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm...=news.quirkies
