Kremis
Member
So I have been looking around on here for a while, and realized that there is not a whole lot of info on keeping these little guys. I have had 2 in my 28 gallon nano cube for the past year, and wanted to share my experiences to help out anyone wanting to keep these cool little guys. When I first got mine, I barely found out anything about them on the internet.
I first got one as an impulse buy for 15$. At the time, my tank had only about 2 inches of sand. I added more sand that I bought that day to a corner, which ended up being around 3 inches. The eel went there and burrowed down into the sand. I realized that this was not going to be enough sand to keep it, so I redid the entire tank that weekend and added enough for 4 inches in the front. A week later, the eel moved to the front of the 28 gallon. At this point, the eel was scared of me and would hide as soon as I came close to the tank. At around week 3 I finally got it to eat some cyclopeeze, by putting it in and going to the other side of the room. It gradually got more comfortable after that, a few weeks later I had it eating brine and mysis, and it was no longer afraid of me at all. I decided to get him some friends, so I added 2 more spotted garden eels that were both only around 7 inches compared to the current one's 12 inches. Both ate, but one died within a week, which I am not sure why. The second one lived for a month, then one day died from a mysterious lesion on its head. (If interested, here is a quick vid. The one in the back is the smaller one before it died, the one up front is the original.) All the while the original eel is still doing great. I added 2 splendid garden eels. Both refused to eat for a good month. One of them started to come out more and ate some cyclopeeze but not enough. Eventually, both starved and died. I picked up another spotted garden eel, which was probably 14 inches ish. It adapted to the tank much like the original, took a good 2 weeks to get it eating and a month for it to not be afraid of me approaching the tank. I have had these 2 for the past year ish doing great. Along the way, there were a few things I learned about these guys:
1. Make sure you are picking up a healthy one at the store. The splendids were not looking too great at the store, but I picked them up anyway because of the fact that they were so hard to find at the LFS. I am not sure how they are collected in the wild, but some certainly acclimate better to aquariums than others.
2. Keep docile tank mates, at least at first. When I first introduced the eels, their only take mates were a pygmy perchlet, a clown goby, and a seahorse. Now however, the 2 eels share the tank with a jawfish and a blue spotted toby. Active fish will frighten the eels during the first few weeks. Even when the eels are acclimated, do not keep fish like tangs, triggerfish, or any other big fast moving fish. Fish like firefish, royal grammas, gobies, blennies, pipefish, etc make good tank mates.
3. Get them eating. I find that at first cyclopeeze or tiny pieces of mashed brine/mysis works best, the eels will get scared of the bigger pieces of food. Later on when they are readily taking smaller pieces of mysis/brine start to feed whole ones mixed in. The eels will start to associate you with food, and not be as frightened when you approach the tank. Make sure that at first, you feed then walk away from the tank so the eels are not as frightened. They will get used to you in time. I fed 2x a day at first, then cut down to 1x as the eels got more comfortable.
4. Make sure the flow takes the food to them. The eels do not like extremely high flow, so they are not as good for SPS type tanks. They do, however, need some flow to take food to them. The eels will be scared of target feeding. Adjust your flow so that it carries food across your sandbed. If you see the eels "shaking" in the flow, the flow is too high.
5. Do not force your eels to move. I tried to do this at first, and regret it. It most likely just stressed out your eels more. Mine would often go first to the 1-2 inch sandbed behind the rocks in the back of the tank, and move to the front within a week. They will move to where they can get the most food.
6. Allow each eel to have at least a 4 inch "territory" around their hole. Give the eels the option to move away/be closer to other eels. This helps minimize aggression between males. you do not want this happening. As long as the eels have space to move away from eachother, they will solve this problem by themselves.
7. Keep at least a 4 inch sand bed. The eels do not need a sandbed that is equal to their length. When they hit the bottom, they will burrow under horizontally. A 4 inch sandbed is the minimum to make them feel comfortable. 6 inch+ is preferred, but if it is not possible 4 inch minimum. Clean the sandbed at least once a month with a siphon, or remove some sand, rinse it, and put it back into the tank.
8. Keep a sandy, open area for the eels. The eels do not mind rocks, but need an area where they can easily see their food and other fish, to make them feel more comfortable. The way I my rocks now is in kind of a U shape. I have rocks on the back and sides, with a DSB in the middle and front for the eels.
9. Protect your powerheads. I have not had this happen to myself, but garden eels like pipefish can get sucked into powerheads and chopped up.
10. If you are purchasing eels that are on the small side, protect your overflows. I had one of the 7 inch eels manage to slip through the overflow on my 28 gallon nano cube.
Something that I noticed was that the eels do not like it when another fish eats a piece of food that they see floating towards them. For example, one of my eels used to live next to the jawfish. The jawfish would get food before the eel because of the current. The eel would see the jawfish eating and i guess get upset that it wasnt getting any and start to grab the jawfish by the tail and drag it down. The jawfish did not really care. This never happened at any time except for during feeding. The eels will also nip at eachother if the other one eats "their" piece of food. I dont know if this is just mine. This is another reason why it is important to give the eels room, so if one feels it is getting outcompeted by another eel it can move.
Another thing I noted was that the eels need time to "adjust" to new tank mates. They were scared to death of a hectors goby I added for the first week it was in there. Eventually they will realize that it is not a threat and ignore them, but give them time.
once you get the eels acclimated and eating well, they are easy to keep. Just feed once to twice a day and keep the sand bed clean. Just to add I would say the smallest tank you could keep one in is 20 gallons, but how many garden eels you can keep depends more on how much sand space you have. Hope you found my experience helpful!
I first got one as an impulse buy for 15$. At the time, my tank had only about 2 inches of sand. I added more sand that I bought that day to a corner, which ended up being around 3 inches. The eel went there and burrowed down into the sand. I realized that this was not going to be enough sand to keep it, so I redid the entire tank that weekend and added enough for 4 inches in the front. A week later, the eel moved to the front of the 28 gallon. At this point, the eel was scared of me and would hide as soon as I came close to the tank. At around week 3 I finally got it to eat some cyclopeeze, by putting it in and going to the other side of the room. It gradually got more comfortable after that, a few weeks later I had it eating brine and mysis, and it was no longer afraid of me at all. I decided to get him some friends, so I added 2 more spotted garden eels that were both only around 7 inches compared to the current one's 12 inches. Both ate, but one died within a week, which I am not sure why. The second one lived for a month, then one day died from a mysterious lesion on its head. (If interested, here is a quick vid. The one in the back is the smaller one before it died, the one up front is the original.) All the while the original eel is still doing great. I added 2 splendid garden eels. Both refused to eat for a good month. One of them started to come out more and ate some cyclopeeze but not enough. Eventually, both starved and died. I picked up another spotted garden eel, which was probably 14 inches ish. It adapted to the tank much like the original, took a good 2 weeks to get it eating and a month for it to not be afraid of me approaching the tank. I have had these 2 for the past year ish doing great. Along the way, there were a few things I learned about these guys:
1. Make sure you are picking up a healthy one at the store. The splendids were not looking too great at the store, but I picked them up anyway because of the fact that they were so hard to find at the LFS. I am not sure how they are collected in the wild, but some certainly acclimate better to aquariums than others.
2. Keep docile tank mates, at least at first. When I first introduced the eels, their only take mates were a pygmy perchlet, a clown goby, and a seahorse. Now however, the 2 eels share the tank with a jawfish and a blue spotted toby. Active fish will frighten the eels during the first few weeks. Even when the eels are acclimated, do not keep fish like tangs, triggerfish, or any other big fast moving fish. Fish like firefish, royal grammas, gobies, blennies, pipefish, etc make good tank mates.
3. Get them eating. I find that at first cyclopeeze or tiny pieces of mashed brine/mysis works best, the eels will get scared of the bigger pieces of food. Later on when they are readily taking smaller pieces of mysis/brine start to feed whole ones mixed in. The eels will start to associate you with food, and not be as frightened when you approach the tank. Make sure that at first, you feed then walk away from the tank so the eels are not as frightened. They will get used to you in time. I fed 2x a day at first, then cut down to 1x as the eels got more comfortable.
4. Make sure the flow takes the food to them. The eels do not like extremely high flow, so they are not as good for SPS type tanks. They do, however, need some flow to take food to them. The eels will be scared of target feeding. Adjust your flow so that it carries food across your sandbed. If you see the eels "shaking" in the flow, the flow is too high.
5. Do not force your eels to move. I tried to do this at first, and regret it. It most likely just stressed out your eels more. Mine would often go first to the 1-2 inch sandbed behind the rocks in the back of the tank, and move to the front within a week. They will move to where they can get the most food.
6. Allow each eel to have at least a 4 inch "territory" around their hole. Give the eels the option to move away/be closer to other eels. This helps minimize aggression between males. you do not want this happening. As long as the eels have space to move away from eachother, they will solve this problem by themselves.
7. Keep at least a 4 inch sand bed. The eels do not need a sandbed that is equal to their length. When they hit the bottom, they will burrow under horizontally. A 4 inch sandbed is the minimum to make them feel comfortable. 6 inch+ is preferred, but if it is not possible 4 inch minimum. Clean the sandbed at least once a month with a siphon, or remove some sand, rinse it, and put it back into the tank.
8. Keep a sandy, open area for the eels. The eels do not mind rocks, but need an area where they can easily see their food and other fish, to make them feel more comfortable. The way I my rocks now is in kind of a U shape. I have rocks on the back and sides, with a DSB in the middle and front for the eels.
9. Protect your powerheads. I have not had this happen to myself, but garden eels like pipefish can get sucked into powerheads and chopped up.
10. If you are purchasing eels that are on the small side, protect your overflows. I had one of the 7 inch eels manage to slip through the overflow on my 28 gallon nano cube.
Something that I noticed was that the eels do not like it when another fish eats a piece of food that they see floating towards them. For example, one of my eels used to live next to the jawfish. The jawfish would get food before the eel because of the current. The eel would see the jawfish eating and i guess get upset that it wasnt getting any and start to grab the jawfish by the tail and drag it down. The jawfish did not really care. This never happened at any time except for during feeding. The eels will also nip at eachother if the other one eats "their" piece of food. I dont know if this is just mine. This is another reason why it is important to give the eels room, so if one feels it is getting outcompeted by another eel it can move.
Another thing I noted was that the eels need time to "adjust" to new tank mates. They were scared to death of a hectors goby I added for the first week it was in there. Eventually they will realize that it is not a threat and ignore them, but give them time.
once you get the eels acclimated and eating well, they are easy to keep. Just feed once to twice a day and keep the sand bed clean. Just to add I would say the smallest tank you could keep one in is 20 gallons, but how many garden eels you can keep depends more on how much sand space you have. Hope you found my experience helpful!
