Anyone keeping g. miliaris?

[Grouperhead]

Hey guys do any of y'all have experience with goldentails, or currently keep one? I have a 120g (4x2x2) with 80ish pounds of liverock (two large formations - one on each side.) I just took back a 5" blueline grouper because he became aggressive to my coris. So, I have some credit at the lfs and am thinking about getting him to order me a miliaris. The only other inhabitant in the tank is a 15-18" banded moray (e. polyzona.) The two eels should get along, correct? I'm going to add some more liverock down the road here and there, and also plan on adding maybe 2 more fish (beside the eel.)

I assume goldentails are like all other eels - hardy, may refuse food for a while once introduced, etc. Anything else I should know before going through with this?

Thanks, Bo

 

[myerst2]

Hey Bo, As you know I have a Millaris with my Hawiian Dragon and Snowflake. They are all fine together. Millaris are very easy going. They tend to be crustacean eaters in the wild. Max size is about 2 feet, but I have never seen one close to that size in captivity. Make sure you have plenty of hiding places and they eel you have now is well fed before you add the other.

On other thing Bo. If you decide to order the Millaris, realize they come in many different color variations. This is what mine looks like if you forgot.

They also come with the colors reversed, black where the gold is on mine. Then they come almost completely blackish to brown. Then there is the Brazilian color morph, that is sometimes called a banana eel. They can be all yellow to all gold with random black blothes on the eel. Some come all gold or yellow with no black and they command a pretty high price. $250-500.00 depending on the specimen. The one I got is not that expensive at all and can be fund from 60-125.00. Just make sure you let your LFS know what you want. Hope this helps. Hey Bo I know of some other Hawaiian dragons available, wanna go big time???!!! Hope this helps, Tim

 

[philter4]

Here is mine, at this time it is maybe 8 inches, eats any shrimp or crab it can overpower, when I collected it he was maybe 3 inches in fact it fit through the holes in my collecting bucket and I had to catch it twice. He doesn't bother the cleaners or any of the fish I have it with and it loves whole ghost shrimp. To give you an idea of size, the clam is about 2 1/2 inches across, I open live ones and let the animals eat them.

 

[Grouperhead]

Thanks for the reply Tim, I was hoping you'd see this . I'm not very worried about the banded moray - he's pretty laid back and eats well. I knew miliaris came in several different 'morphs' - the lfs said the eel would be around $100-120 depending on size. I think the banana morph is cool, but not as nice as some of the high gold normals. I'm going to also add about 15-20 more pounds of rock this weekend as well. I really love the colors of your's Tim, so I'm going to talk to the guys and see if I can get one like that . Did your's refuse food for any extended period of time once introduced?


Tim, you know I want to go bigtime, I just don't have the money right now . I get done with school in December....I'm already planning on using the graduation money and money saved from work for a dragon. I'll definately let you know when that happens.

Bo

Edit: philter - sweet eel, and cool story too! Where did you collect him from? Any full body/tail pics?

 

[myerst2]

No my milaris ate from day one and will eat everyday if I let him but I usually feed him 2-3 times a week. Usually Tuna, squid, shrimp, on a feeding stick. Tim

 

[LukFox]

I mentioned in my PM that I had one and it was a very sweet eel, but I'll add on that here .

When I first got him he couldn't stop eating. He even went after mysis! That stopped after a couple months as he got used to weekly feedings. He got along very well with my dwarf moray and they'd often share the same cave even though many were available. They were together for 1.5 years (when I got the Brazilian dragon I moved the dwarf to the sump because I'm certain she would get eaten).

He was never aggressive to other fish, though he did eat some smaller ones that slept in the rocks.

The miliaris is another fast grower in my experience. Grew from about 16" to roughly 24" in a year. It surprised me because he would fairly regularly go off feed for a couple weeks at a time. I thought it should have slowed his growth, though maybe it did because he certainly didn't grow as fast as the Brazilian dragon (17" to 30-32" in 7 months to refresh. Didn't even know they got this big :/). Eels grow so fast...

It was easily intimidated. For example if the tusk tried to steal more than one piece of food on any given feeding, the miliaris would retreat and be too scared to eat for a couple weeks... A real pain. I said in the PM that I had to sell him because he was terrified of the Brazilian, but I'll elaborate. The Brazilian never actually even did anything physical to him! There was some posturing, but there was no actual injury to either eel. Still, the posturing was enough to put him off feed for 3 months. I was afraid he'd never eat again so I sold him.

I had him for just under two years. I was sad to see him go, but between the tusk and dragon it wasn't the best environment for him. With your stocklist it should be fine.

Some pictures:

 

[Grouperhead]

Luk, thanks for the reply! You have/had some real nice stuff.

The banded moray is very laid back, and pretty much minds his own business. I'm going to try and get a miliaris of equal size, but but if not oh well. The banded moray really never leaves his "home rock" - in the 4 months I've had him, I've seen him leave the rock only a handful of times (except at night.) Like I said, the rockwork is two large formations - I'm hoping the goldentail will take refuge in the one the banded doesn't use. I currently feed fresh shrimp, squid, and clam along with freeze dried krill and mysis to my eel. Are goldentails piscivorous? Regardless, I'll start feeding some fresh fish since y'all had luck doing so. I don't think he'll be bothered by my coris either. The wrasse pretty much minds his own buisness and stays in the mid to upper levels of the tank and I've never seen him bother the current eel.

Thanks again for all the help guys. If the goldentail is pretty easily bothered by larger fish, I'm probably going to add him and maybe just one more fish. Really just want the goldentail right now.

 

[philter4]

Grouperhead, sorry no full body pics, he now lives at my moms FOWLR and you hardly ever see him out, as like others have said they are timid. He feeds well and has his head out but when he comes out the pygmy angel displays in front of him and he backs down. I collected him on the reefs near where I live in about 80 ft of water. They are common there but you hardly ever see them that small. My dive partner saw a solid yellow one last sunday on a reef but couldn't get it to come out from the rocks it was under so he couldn't collect it. That would have been a nice catch, but another day.

 

[LukFox]

Goldentails eat inverts and fish, both in captivity and in the wild. Feed a nice mix everything .

 

[kirkaz]

Good thread for me too, I'm considering a Goldentail as my last fish into my current tank....My problem is I only buy online, and this is really a fish I would like to see first due to the different potential coloration like Tim said.