are eel's reef safe?

[mattnano]

Soo I was at a lfs and saw a snowflake eel and fell in love. Are eel's reef safe? Im thinking they arent b/c I never see them in reef tanks but I thougt it's worth asking. If they are reef save what do they eat?

 

[Ah64av8tor]

Sure if you dont want any fish or shrimp! They like to hide in the reef so you wont see him much. But your corals will be fine.

 

[tgrove]

snails hermits and one six line wrasse went to my snowflakes tummy before he had to find a new home

 

[smorrow5773]

They won't eat your coral, but your cleanup crew and fish are in danger. I kept one in my softie tank for over a year, ate a couple of clowns and several gobies.

 

[mattnano]

Hmmm Darn I wish I didnt have any fish, I dont care about my clean up crew b/c to be honest they dont clean up much besides the sand sifters. If my clown ever dies I think im going to replace him with a couple eelsv

 

[Fuegofish777]

I had one way back when, it was pretty cool. mine was small and i only had it until it was about a foot long. it never ate any of my fish, at least not while they were alive ( there was an incedent where he ate an already dead fish that was killed by something else). again they wont harm corals, my hermits were never touched. crabs were eaten but i had a cleaner shrimp that was never harmed, it actually cleaned off his head, and it was added after the eel.

 

[Tang Salad]

I have a foot-long eel in with two Coral Banded Shrimp and one cleaner shrimp. They get along well. The Cleaner (lysmata) cleans the eels teeth and the CBS scare the eel back into place. The eel is a model citizen, and very cool to observe.

I'm not sure of the exact genus/species of the eel, though.

 

[FishyLover]

I love eels! We have one in with our agressives and a tiny one alone in our nano.
Ours eat big silversides so I wouldn't trust them with very small fish, but we have 4 triggers in with the big one and they're fine.

 

[latino277]

I had one in a reef for about a yr and a half and it was great with the fish. never touched any of them and i had a few fire fish and goby's. but it did eat my shrimp. If you feed it well you should not have a problem. They seem to be very lazy and would rather be feed than try and hunt... at least that was mine. He ended up carpet surfing...... Poor ouch....

 

[JeffersonReef]

I heard that the ribbon eel is reef safe. You would be hard pressed to find a prettier eel, too! Im thinking about getting one. Prolly wouldnt put in my reef tank though... maybe a FOWLR.

-TJ

 

[ajukes]

i Have a dwarf golden moray and a ghost moray in a tank with corals hermits shrimps
etc etc there ar good as gold, frighten the life out of me by going on hunger stike evry now and again, but thats it there also very very hardy!

 

[joeycadre]

ribbon eels should be avoided. they almost never survive in any kind of tank.

zebra eels only eat crustaceans from what i've read and in my experience working at a lfs. seems like they would leave your fish alone, but not your hermits.