I am thinking about adding a dwarf golden moray eel (gymnothorax meleatrus from Hawaii, not a banana or other yellow eel!) and wanted to get feedback from others who have experience with these, particularly in regards to their fish eating potential. A good LFS has a very attractive dwarf golden moray for sale at a good price (about half the typical online amount) so I'm thinking about getting him. Any "go for it" or "you are crazy" input is greatly appreciated!
I am aware that as a moray eel it is a piscivorous animal, but even full size these only reach 8-10" with a diameter similar to a pen. So my thought is that other than the tiniest of gobies or dartfish, most reef fish should be safe as they will be too large for them to eat.
Most of my fish are of sufficient size to be of no concern, including the four tangs, a dozen wrasses, a copperband butterflyfish, four bicolor anthias, pair of genicanthus angelfish, a flame hawkfish, a fuzzy dwarf lionfish, three cardinalfish,two ocellaris clownfish (hosting in a RBTA) and a green mandarin.
But there are a bunch of smaller fish in the tank, including three jawfish (one bluespot, two pearly), a spotted mandarin, three blennies (red spotted, lawnmower, segmented), purple firefish, Randalls goby, and a blue neon goby.
The jawfish, blennies, firefish, and goby are all decent size adults. The jawfish are living in established burrows that they cover up at night. But all of these fish are elongated like an eel so may get extra attention from a dwarf moray. I did read a post from one member that his eel would kill jawfish, but I am not sure if that was just new or small ones added with the eel already established, or if the eel sought out and killed established jawfish upon its introduction. Also a lot of pictures in dwarf golden moray eel threads show what looks to be a small banana or other yellow eel, lacking the characteristic eye features.
The spotted mandarin and particularly the neon goby are small. I know that mandarins are ignored by most predators. There may also be two yashia gobies in the tank. They were quite small when introduced and disappeared for a long time. Assumption was the lionfish got them, but lo and behold several weeks later I found both of them out sleeping on the sandbed after lights out! They had grown so were finding food. Only a few times have I seen one out during the day, and of late I haven't even seen them at night. So I'm not sure if they are still alive or not. Similarly, the purple firefish were bought as a mated pair and would be out together during the day frequently. But for the past month or so I have only seen one, and suspect the other is deceased.
If the firefish and/or yashia gobies are deceased I suspect the tiger pistol shrimp which inhabits the same general area of the tank. The lionfish had plenty of easy opportunities to eat them and expressed no interest. Of course I keep him well fed with silversides and krill
Once weaned to non-live food, he has actually been a perfect reef resident, expressing no interest in sessile or mobile inverts or other fish in the tank. He keeps a low profile during the day, usually hanging out in caves or under a coral sometimes upside down, and swims up to the front glass when I feed. He eats right from my hand, once he gets the food down he will happily swim around the tank for an hour or so.
There are also four cleaner shrimp in the tank. I was worried that the lionfish, hawfish or mystery wrasse would take these out, but they have ignored them maybe because the shrimp were already established when these fish were introduced. All the cleaners are full size; I feed them individually every few nights before feeding corals (otherwise they will steal any food I give to the corals!) My undstanding is that eels will typically not bother cleaner shrimp and will rather establish a relationship with them. This has definitely been the case with the lionfish, the cleaner shrimp jump onto him and feel him up with their antennae whenever he is nearby. I actually got the lionfish weaned onto frozen using the cleaner shrimp -- before he would accept it on his own, I would give a piece of silverside to the cleaners and as they would wiggle it around eating it, he would notice then move in and snatch it
I am aware that as a moray eel it is a piscivorous animal, but even full size these only reach 8-10" with a diameter similar to a pen. So my thought is that other than the tiniest of gobies or dartfish, most reef fish should be safe as they will be too large for them to eat.
Most of my fish are of sufficient size to be of no concern, including the four tangs, a dozen wrasses, a copperband butterflyfish, four bicolor anthias, pair of genicanthus angelfish, a flame hawkfish, a fuzzy dwarf lionfish, three cardinalfish,two ocellaris clownfish (hosting in a RBTA) and a green mandarin.
But there are a bunch of smaller fish in the tank, including three jawfish (one bluespot, two pearly), a spotted mandarin, three blennies (red spotted, lawnmower, segmented), purple firefish, Randalls goby, and a blue neon goby.
The jawfish, blennies, firefish, and goby are all decent size adults. The jawfish are living in established burrows that they cover up at night. But all of these fish are elongated like an eel so may get extra attention from a dwarf moray. I did read a post from one member that his eel would kill jawfish, but I am not sure if that was just new or small ones added with the eel already established, or if the eel sought out and killed established jawfish upon its introduction. Also a lot of pictures in dwarf golden moray eel threads show what looks to be a small banana or other yellow eel, lacking the characteristic eye features.
The spotted mandarin and particularly the neon goby are small. I know that mandarins are ignored by most predators. There may also be two yashia gobies in the tank. They were quite small when introduced and disappeared for a long time. Assumption was the lionfish got them, but lo and behold several weeks later I found both of them out sleeping on the sandbed after lights out! They had grown so were finding food. Only a few times have I seen one out during the day, and of late I haven't even seen them at night. So I'm not sure if they are still alive or not. Similarly, the purple firefish were bought as a mated pair and would be out together during the day frequently. But for the past month or so I have only seen one, and suspect the other is deceased.
If the firefish and/or yashia gobies are deceased I suspect the tiger pistol shrimp which inhabits the same general area of the tank. The lionfish had plenty of easy opportunities to eat them and expressed no interest. Of course I keep him well fed with silversides and krill
Once weaned to non-live food, he has actually been a perfect reef resident, expressing no interest in sessile or mobile inverts or other fish in the tank. He keeps a low profile during the day, usually hanging out in caves or under a coral sometimes upside down, and swims up to the front glass when I feed. He eats right from my hand, once he gets the food down he will happily swim around the tank for an hour or so.There are also four cleaner shrimp in the tank. I was worried that the lionfish, hawfish or mystery wrasse would take these out, but they have ignored them maybe because the shrimp were already established when these fish were introduced. All the cleaners are full size; I feed them individually every few nights before feeding corals (otherwise they will steal any food I give to the corals!) My undstanding is that eels will typically not bother cleaner shrimp and will rather establish a relationship with them. This has definitely been the case with the lionfish, the cleaner shrimp jump onto him and feel him up with their antennae whenever he is nearby. I actually got the lionfish weaned onto frozen using the cleaner shrimp -- before he would accept it on his own, I would give a piece of silverside to the cleaners and as they would wiggle it around eating it, he would notice then move in and snatch it
