eel

E

emonemo420

New member
i made a post in another thread where someone was talking about their eel so i figured id make my own thread....and i guess i should add i already have the opinion of another fellow reefer and i liked the opinion "yea sure y not" thats always my favorite...but what is the smallest eel?...from what i understand its the snowflake...is their ne smaller for a decent price...i really would like an eel but having only a 55 makes it kinda hard...and the fellow reefer also stated it will eat hermits and maybe even some fish...i have a "nemo", juvi corris wrasse, a lawnmower blenny (which i havent seen in a few days lol lil punk always hides), and a royal gramma...would he eat ne of those...am i wasting my time getting excited about getting on or is it a possibility...ne help would be appreciated ..i like opinions!!
 
I am no expert but I think the safest eel when it comes to not eating fish is the zebra. I also think you need a larger tank for one of those. I would go on a site like live aquaria and see what they have to say about tank size. Don't worry, if you turn out to be serious with this hobby you will have a larger tank in no time. I started with a 75 then I added a 180 now I am replacing the 180 with a 300...........It just keeps going and going and going!!!!!!! Hey want to buy a 180 I will have one for sale soon......LOL
 
I say get it, but only if you don't mind it eating everything else in the tank. When I had a snowflake, I had to just about stick the food in his mouth to get him to eat, but not for lack of trying. Just too blind, or dumb to see the food. He would bite at other fish though. When the scent of food got in the water, he'd pretty much bite at anything that moved. I think all of your fish would be considered potential meals. Or, come get this 55 in my basement, and set up a FO tank! You know you want to...
 
where would i put another 55 i have enough issues with me one since i live in a jail cell lol...maybe when i get a place id think about it
 
I think there are eels that can be kept in smaller aquariums. One that comes to mind is the ribbon eel. I think if you look at the size requirements they usually don't list physical size requirements they list what size independent system you would need. Like for instance some sites/books will tell you for a mandarin you would need 200+ aquarium. Obviously a mandarin doesn't get this big, but needs that amount of pods.

Eels are of course predators and predators eat big meaty things and well... defecate most of it leaving you with a dirty tank. An eel like a ribbon eel doesn't often do well with being wild caught and transported. They are expensive, almost impossible to get to feed, and need decent water quality.

Unfortunately my advice would be to hold off on an eel until you find the room in your "jail cell";-) for another tank or move to another place.

Hope that makes sense. Let me know if you have questions.

Jon
 
so long story short an eel isnt a good idea for my tank....idk i just kinda liked the idea of somethign like that sleeking in and out of the rocks but its ok i can live without it...hmm....wat other bright ideas can i come up with
 
I'd be more scared of the large worm then an eel, lol. I have an idea for you. Take a look at the type of fish I lost last week, the engin.eer goby. Well it's not really a goby not really a blenny, but looks just like an eel. They are pretty shy and will move your sand/ aragonite around, but if you have your rocks placed firmly on the bottom and corals up on rocks, I think they are awsome. Read up on them first as always. There is a good article at wetwebmedia and if you like them the new store in Newark has them in.
 
450 is waaaayy out of my price range for a fish ....lol i have a rule of thumb ..never spend more then 50 bucks on a fish ....and while i can bend the rules 450 isnt a bend something they dont have a word for yet lol...thanks though :)
 
Yeah, I would probably never spend more than $50 on a fish either and $450 is ridiculous. Just lettin you know its out there though....
 
The smallest eel I know of is the Golden Dwarf Morey from Hawaii (Gymnothorax Melatremus). I saw two for sale in Hawaii for $99 and went home to research before buying and came back an hour later and they were gone. There's some other "dwarf golden's" that come up for sale but the Hawaiian one really doesn't get over 10" while the others that pop up get larger and aren't quite as nice looking.
 
Hey let's make a deal. If you get this guy <A HREF="http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/197/product.web">here</A> and keep him until he gets too large for your aquarium, I will take him off your hands at no charge to you and replace any fish he has eaten when I pick him up. :-D ;-)

BTW, I was at TPP last night and saw him. It looks incredible. They also had an eel for.... something like $40 that was brown and had a yellow line down the top of it's body. It was probably about 3-4 inches long and as thick as a pen. From a distance I thought it was a ribbon, but it wasn't. Wish I had room for it.
 
While diving on the Big Island, we saw several dwarf golden eels.
They were at Isle of Refuge, living in the cracks in the lava rock, at the surface. You could walk along the top of the rocks (flat and smooth) and see them between the cracks. I didn't try to catch any, but now that I know the price, :eek2:
I might consider them on my next trip over there.
Doug
 
We have one of those (golden moray)!

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Ours isn't a dwarf though (they apparently have a blue stripe down their eyes). Gorgeous animal and about 16" long. Was in a 30g for years before we got him and he's in our 65 now.

Ours has never gone after any fish from the little gold stripe maroon to a pseudo.
 
I didn't look close enough to see if they ghad the blue stripe in the eyes. They are gorgeous.
If he doesn't bother your fish, what does he eat?
 
He eats prawns from tongs. They have terrible eyesight (though a pretty good sense of smell). So if you threw shrimp into the tank they would likely foul the tank more than serve as food. We feed him 15-25 lima bean sized prawns at sitting and he eats 2-3 times a week.

If we put ghost shrimp collected at the area shores into the tank he'll eat those as well, but since the wrasses in the tank also eat those they don't last long enough for him to get a good meal. He really needs to be hand fed. He's also a very wreckless hunter and tends to knock rock all around the tank if he has to hunt!

We've had him for more than 2 years and his previous owner had had him for about that long after aquiring it from someone else in the hobby.

I would think nothing of buying a 8-10" speicimen for a 30g tank as I'm sure you could own it for many years before he'd outgrow it. If our eel has grown 4" in the last two years I'd say that would be a lot. I really think he's only grown maybe 2".

He's the most amazingly gentle animal and shows no agression towards us or any of his tank mates, no matter how small they are. I think nothing of putting my hands in the tank (unless there's food defrosting because as I said he has a great sense of smell). That said, I wouldn't purposefully put my hand near his head for fear of startling him into an undesireable response.

But left to his druthers, he's gentle as a lamb. A great addition to a tank (that doesn't need shrimp in it). He doesn't bother snails at all (again, my wrasse takes care of them).
 
What type wrasse do you have? I had a six line wrasse for several years, he was only about 2" long. Although I never caught him killing my shrimp or my snails, they usually disappeared mysteriously. I wonder if he was the culprit?
 
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