Garden Eels and Seahorses

techigirl78

techigirl78

New member
If you had the appropriate tank, could these two be put together? I'm thinking of building a tank for these two species - i.e. extremely tall for deep sand bed and room for sea horses. Just wondering if anybody had any thoughts.
 
I've often though they would make good companions, but I don't know. I have no experience with garden eels, but everything I've read suggests they would be peaceful enough.

If you try it, please post pictures!
 
There are various websites that have them available on occasion. Otherwise, my LFS is fairly good at getting in specific species. I figured both would be good in a open system with lots of sea grass and such. I'll post the pics if I'm able set it up, right now I'm just trying to gather as much info as possible.
 
I am curious as to how much height you would need. I mean gardne eels neeed like 12 inches of sand correct? Plus a good 20 or so for the horses. Thats a tall tank!
 
I was thinking 30-35" height. I realize it will need to be a custom tank - maybe 48" x 18" x 32" as it will be going next to my 125 gal., then build the stand so that the first 8 inches from the bottom is covered. I like a little bit of sand in my tanks, but don't want to see 10" of it.

I will also be setting up a sump/refugium with an ASM G-Series skimmer. I plan on a T5 reto for lighting, but will likely only include 4 bulbs to prevent too much light for the eels. Finally, I'll throw in a few mini-jets, to provide a nice current to take food to the eels without blowing anyone around to much.

Stocking would include 3 eels (2 females - 1 male), 2 pairs of sea horses, and a variety of snails. I'd also include about 45 lbs of live rock, sea grass, and a variety of other algaes. A few pieces of LR would be positioned on the sand with a PVC frame as mainly decor and the rest mounted to the tank walls to setup more hitch posts for the sea horses and provide the eels with ample open room. Does this sound like the bio load would be acceptable?

Anything anyone would recommend changing upfront?
 
Hi,

I've thought about doing the same thing. My LFS has several of these eels and I think they are very cool looking. Most of the reading I've done suggest they need a deep sand bed (10-12 inches). From my reading, the reason is that they ram thier tails into the sand to create burrows and if the sand is too shallow they'll injure themselves hitting the galss. However the LFS has them in a tank with only about 4-5 inches of sand and they seem to be doing fine. They've had them for several months, they've created burrows, and all seems well. The ones in my LFS are trained on frozen mysis which makes feeding alot easier. From what I've read keeping these guys eating in captivity is difficult and many of them end up starving to death. But if they are already on frozen mysis should make the chances of them eating better.

I don't think the eels need alot of room to swim. The ones in the LFS stay in thier burrows all of the time with just thier head and an inch or two of thier bodies outside. They just hang out like that untill something tastey swims by.

I have about 6 inches of sand in my tank and was thinking that I could pile it up a bit higher on one side to make it deeper. I'm wondering though if the eels whould know where the deep areas are. Anyone else have garden eels and want to chime in with some advise?

I'm also wondering if they would use a fake burrow made out of tubbing or PVC pipe. If I can provide a few strategically placed burrows can I control where thy reside and possibally avoid the chance of them injuring themselves trying to create a burrow?

Chris
 
I plan on a 10" sandbed. I want the open area so they can move around and allow them seperate areas. When they are ready to mate, I understand that the males will move closer to the females.

Maybe I'll try posting in the FO/Agressive section to see if I can find some owners of these eels.
 
I haven't done much research, but are garden eels agreesive? Or as agressive as other eels?

It seems like they would just kinda plop down in their burrow if a sea horse came by looking for a hitching post. Not to mention, if a seahorse was able to get its tail around one, I think the reaction of the eel might be to dart in its burrow causing the sea horse to let go, instead of the eel attacking the sea horse.

Thats my outlook, I have no idea though.
 
That's what I was thinking to after reading some more. At the aquarium, they acted kind of like my pearly jawfish. Reclusive/peaceful - withdrawing when spooked. Everything I've read to date indicates they are fairly peaceful.

I sent a message to the people at wetwebmedia.com as they have helped me in the past with obscure type questions. Maybe they'll have some insight or experience to offer.
 
Saw some at the zoo today. Not the best image, but there were a lot of people there, so I had to hurry.

1zytvdy.jpg
 
I saw a whole bed of garden eels in Hawaii while I was Scuba Diving. So cool.
I believe they said in Hawaii they ate Razor wrasses so maybe seahorses wouldn't be the best of ideas, but I have limited knowledge of the garden eels.
 
I've been doing a bit of research on this species. This is what the Australian Museum has to say about them.

"When feeding, the Spotted Garden Eel rises out of its burrow, exposing up to two-thirds of its body. It feeds on zooplankton taken from the passing current.

When disturbed the Spotted Garden Eel retreats backwards into the burrow."

And from the Shed Aquarium

"A hungry garden eel extends most of its body out of its burrow and faces the current. Then the eel sways back and forth, picking tiny animals and eggs from the water that flows by. A single garden eel can eat up to 600 tiny animals in one meal."

and

"Garden eels are the hardest of all eels to keep in the home aquarium. They require lots of special planning and care. These eels need to spread out, so the tank needs to be quite large because if the males are too close to one another, they will fight. The sand also needs to be at least one-half foot deep or the garden eels will hurt their tails by trying to drive into the bottom of the tank when forming their burrow. There also needs to be an artificial current to bring them their live food. All of these factors make garden eels hard to keep at home. Their population remains stable, but if too many are collected in the pet trade and sold in pet stores, they may decline."

Sounds like they mostly eat small critters so they shoudn't be much of a threat to seahorses. I'm still debating adding one to my tank. I'll let everyone know if I do and how it works out.

Chris
 
Some zoo plankton isn't that small, and small critters for the ocean could mean what we consider large fish in the home aquarium game
 
Most other information I've found on people keeping them indicated they were kept with jawfish and small gobies with no issues. We are talking about a 14" eel. I think the problem lies in that people keep them in the wrong types of tanks, similar to sea horses or octopuses. Hopefully, I'll be able to try it out.
 
They will eat frozen mysis as it floats in the current as they feel comfortable in the system. They do need a deep sand bed. Invest in good filtration as a tank with seahorses and garden eels will take alot of food. Good luck.
 
Please note that garden eels will jump - I had one in my horse tank with about 6 inches of sand - very cool critter. They coexisted quite nicely. They will move their burrow from time to time ..
I found it one day on the floor :(
 
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