A giant speckled longfin eel (Anguilla reinhardtii Steindachner, 1867) measuring 175 cm and weighing 18 kg was captured from the Sun Moon Lake of Central Taiwan on 23 January 2008. This was the first record of this exotic species from inland waters of Taiwan, and the largest of the kind outside its native ranges of New Guinea and East Australia. Probably, this eel was one of the live eels imported from Australia and sold as the mottled eel (Anguilla marmorata) in Taiwan. It was released to the lake for religious belief, or escaped from aquarium or restaurant. Finding this giant exotic eel in the natural inland waters raises a concern on the requirement for strict regulation of commercial importation of exotic fishes to Taiwan.