Help! Moray eel attacked lionfish!

[FishyMel]

Moray eel broke off 3 rays on my lionfish fairly close to the body, so about half of the length of the cartilidge part of the ray is gone. Can the cartidge part of the ray regenerate, or will my lionfish be finless on these 3 rays? Thanks! I am so upset. This is a 3 year old gorgeous hand trained lionfish.

 

[majestic sea life]

what type of eel?

 

[DragonMorayEels]

If you wish for the lionfish to live you are best too remove it before the eel kills it, not mattering what the eel species be for if it`s attacking, I know it`s not a SFE are zebra

 

[FishyMel]

I'm sorry, I think you misunderstood my question. It wasn't a compatibility question. I have been keeping a saltwater predator tank for 14 years and I actually know what I'm doing. It wasn't a compatibility problem. It was an accident. As you know, Morays are quite blind and the lionfish was feeding and a silverside was falling at the same time past his fins and the eel who is very docile and actually reef safe accidently grabbed the fin with the fish.

It is a Brazilian dwarf banana eel by trade name. (Gymnothorax miliaris is what he was sold to me as, years ago. He has lived with this lionfish for 3 years with no problems whatsoever. Through my own research, I believe him to be a bright yellow variant of the Gymnothorax meltremus instead since he has gold eyes, not blue eyes.) While, I disagree with the label of reef safe for either of these species of eels,(no matter what the lfs tells you) they are definitely fish safe.! They will eat shrimp and crabs which is why they aren't reefsafe, but I haven't had a problem with this dwarf eel taking out any of my fish and I have had him for 3 years. He is not all that big measuring only a little over a foot in length. The lionfish is massive.

Anyway, I still would like to know how much cartildge can be taken from a ray on the pectoral fin of the Russells lion before the fin will not regenerate. The 3 broken rays are about half gone each. Thanks!

 

[DragonMorayEels]

Then over all your lion will live which is great. Being you been keeping a saltwater predator tank for 14 years you should expect things like this to happen, for when they do happen.

And also it nothing to do much with any eel being blind for their eye sight in general is not perfect, they do know where the food is when they smell it. Even if you had a mating pair of eels, they would battle at times for that strip of fish or octopus.

They will eat shrimp and crabs which is why they aren't reefsafe

There be no moray eel that is totally reef safe>

The idea of a ray in a 150 and you wish to have other tank inhabitants as well is not something I would do and being your enough years in the hobby should understand why.

But on the thing about eels and food, when it comes to food and their hungry just then, they know nothing of their tank mates for it`s just like at times when I feed my eels octopus the female had the octopus and yet the male grabs the octopus from the other end and rips most the meal from the female.

Things like this goes with my goldentails as well that sometimes one will not approach the food allowing the other to feed and most times it will be a grab bag thing.

 

[zemuron114]

Eel will be fine. the lion may not make it though. G'luck

 

[FishyMel]

DragonMorayEels: It was mistaken identity. My eel grabbed the silverside as it was falling against the lionfish fin and it got the fin in its mouth by accident. I was just an unfortunate incident of the food being tangled in the fin of the lionfish and the fin got bitten as the eel took the food. He spit out the fin once he bit it off since it wasn't his intention to eat it and he isn't aggressive towards the lion ever, but he is competitive for food. He will grab stuff out of other fishes mouths if he can, and sometimes he gets bitten for his efforts. Luckily, he has thick skin!

I am confused about why you are talking about a ray in my tank? I have never kept rays. I think I was referring to the rays that form a pectoral fin.

BTW, for everyone, lionfish is fine and will live. He is still eating well and cruising well. I just still am interested whether the individual rays on the pectoral fins of lions can grow back when they are bitten half off and that including a good portion of the cartildge?