this is kind of long so skip to the second last paragraph to see the questions or picture if youd rather.
i stumbled across one of these at one of the nearby fish store. ive been looking for one for over a year and know how bad a rep they have and decided id give it a try. ive read about someone who had one and it refused to eat and after a month he force fed it and after it got over the shock of it it started eating regularly so i thought i might have a decent chance.
i saw it by chance and knew that with the hours and hours of research id done it would have a much better chance at survival with me than someone who picked it up at random. and the fact that they are local to here meant that unlike most other people id be willing to release it if i got into too much trouble. so i picked it up and brought it home and acclimatised it over around 2 hours.
it seemed pretty bold and was doing laps trying to find any weakness in my security to escape out of. so i thought i might as well try feeding it. ive got some large tweezers i use to feed my seahorses so i pulled out some frozen shrimp and held it out. it didnt seem to care much but after a minute or two it snapped at the steel part near the food. ive heard they are very peaceful and almost blind so i decided that it wasnt an act of aggression and it might have just missed the food because it couldnt see it well. once it settled down i dropped a large piece (too large i realized once i saw its size in relation to the eel) and to my shock the eel took it. it spent about a minute and a half chewing at it before it was finally able to swallow it.
i was very pleased an decided to let it settle for the night before trying anything else with it. the next night i thought id give it another go, it had eaten a huge chunk the night before but i haven't read much on what quantities they like to eat and how frequently. most of it is people abusing anyone who bought one and telling them how it definitely without a doubt will never eat in an aquarium no matter the conditions.
so i dropped a piece in, much smaller this time and it took it without hesitation. so i tried with a bit more and it took that too. so then i gave it another decent sized piece and after a few seconds it took that. i decided that was probably enough because as far as i knew it would eat itself to death.
so its been a few days since then and its still fearless and still takes frozen shrimp like a madman. im getting some mollys in few days to give it some excitement.
so while this eel seems hellbent on destroying everything i put in front of it i wanted to ask a few questions. first how big a tank should i have it it. its currently about 18 inches long in a 3 foot tank. i think its 50-55 gal which i know isnt enough for an adult. ive read about 65 is good but ive got a 180 that i plan on transferring it too once ive made sure its properly secured, but im not sure if it would be stressed in a 3 foot tank right now or not. its eating well (too well almost) and sleeps either in a pvc pipe, a pirate ship or a huge live rock. it does laps every now and then to check stuff out and i have a couple of seahorses in with it that are much much too large to be prey. they actually seem to really enjoy its company but im not sure it does anything more than tolerates them.
my other question is exactly how much should i feed it? i was thinking of either letting it stuff itself every 2-3 days or giving it a smaller amount every night to keep it lean and mean. does anyone know what a recommended amount is in relation to its size?
ill attach a picture i took with my phone of it with one of the seahorses that seems to be in love with it. they were acting almost like a mated pair for a while but seem to have gotten used to each other. the tank itself was used as a feeder tank for my octopus so it doesnt look very nice at the moment but you get the idea.
i stumbled across one of these at one of the nearby fish store. ive been looking for one for over a year and know how bad a rep they have and decided id give it a try. ive read about someone who had one and it refused to eat and after a month he force fed it and after it got over the shock of it it started eating regularly so i thought i might have a decent chance.
i saw it by chance and knew that with the hours and hours of research id done it would have a much better chance at survival with me than someone who picked it up at random. and the fact that they are local to here meant that unlike most other people id be willing to release it if i got into too much trouble. so i picked it up and brought it home and acclimatised it over around 2 hours.
it seemed pretty bold and was doing laps trying to find any weakness in my security to escape out of. so i thought i might as well try feeding it. ive got some large tweezers i use to feed my seahorses so i pulled out some frozen shrimp and held it out. it didnt seem to care much but after a minute or two it snapped at the steel part near the food. ive heard they are very peaceful and almost blind so i decided that it wasnt an act of aggression and it might have just missed the food because it couldnt see it well. once it settled down i dropped a large piece (too large i realized once i saw its size in relation to the eel) and to my shock the eel took it. it spent about a minute and a half chewing at it before it was finally able to swallow it.
i was very pleased an decided to let it settle for the night before trying anything else with it. the next night i thought id give it another go, it had eaten a huge chunk the night before but i haven't read much on what quantities they like to eat and how frequently. most of it is people abusing anyone who bought one and telling them how it definitely without a doubt will never eat in an aquarium no matter the conditions.
so i dropped a piece in, much smaller this time and it took it without hesitation. so i tried with a bit more and it took that too. so then i gave it another decent sized piece and after a few seconds it took that. i decided that was probably enough because as far as i knew it would eat itself to death.
so its been a few days since then and its still fearless and still takes frozen shrimp like a madman. im getting some mollys in few days to give it some excitement.
so while this eel seems hellbent on destroying everything i put in front of it i wanted to ask a few questions. first how big a tank should i have it it. its currently about 18 inches long in a 3 foot tank. i think its 50-55 gal which i know isnt enough for an adult. ive read about 65 is good but ive got a 180 that i plan on transferring it too once ive made sure its properly secured, but im not sure if it would be stressed in a 3 foot tank right now or not. its eating well (too well almost) and sleeps either in a pvc pipe, a pirate ship or a huge live rock. it does laps every now and then to check stuff out and i have a couple of seahorses in with it that are much much too large to be prey. they actually seem to really enjoy its company but im not sure it does anything more than tolerates them.
my other question is exactly how much should i feed it? i was thinking of either letting it stuff itself every 2-3 days or giving it a smaller amount every night to keep it lean and mean. does anyone know what a recommended amount is in relation to its size?
ill attach a picture i took with my phone of it with one of the seahorses that seems to be in love with it. they were acting almost like a mated pair for a while but seem to have gotten used to each other. the tank itself was used as a feeder tank for my octopus so it doesnt look very nice at the moment but you get the idea.
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