In Yanping, Taiping and Zhanghu Town, the Minjiang River section can be seen as one of the few wild eels, which belong to the national Level II protected wild animals, and are called "Xi shui" by locals.
Yanping flower eel is long, thick cylindrical at the front, flattened on the side of the tail, conical in the head, shorter than the spacing between the beginning points of the dorsal and fins, flattened in the snout, and the angle of the mouth exceeds the posterior edge of the eyes; the lower jaw is slightly prominent, the central teeth are toothless; the front of the jaw is clustered, the lateral teeth are in rows; the lip folds are thick, the gills are small, the scales are small, arranged in a mat-shaped scale group, the scales are vertically crossed with each other, buried under the skin; the lateral line is complete, the lateral line is obvious; the odd fins are interconnected, the dorsal fin is low and long, the starting point is closer to the gill hole than the anus, the dorsal fin starting point and the fin start point are more spaced than the head length, and the pectoral fin is round. No ventral fins; 100-110 vertebrae; the dorsal and fins of the body are covered with tan spots, the space between the body spots and the edges of the pectoral fins are yellow, the ventral side is white or blue-gray, and the posterior edges of the dorsal and fins are black. Eels are fierce in temperament, strong and powerful. Lurking in caves and stone crevices during the day, going out at night, preying on fish, shrimp, crabs, frogs and other small animals, also eating animal carcasses in the water, and can forage for food in wet grasslands outside the water and bamboo forests and bushes after rain.
Source: Fang Zhiwei