My Garden Eel setup

[romanr]

I decided to do this after losing all my fish during my 65g to 150g upgrade. Long story short, the pump in my temp holding tank died while I was at work. Corals and most inverts survived so I saw this as an opportunity to do something totally new and different. The idea came to me after reading an article on Garden Eels in Reef Hobbyist Magazine. I saw my new 150 cube as well suited for the aquascaping needed to host Garden Eels. Below is a link to a thread I started about my setup in my club's RC forum. I'm also attaching a few pics here. I hope to find others who have experiences and maybe even pictures to share of Garden Eel setups. Oh, BTW, I also have a pair of Orange Spotted Filefish which are doing well in the setup. The OSFF's were DD purchases that were eating prepared foods.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1950568

 

[Fretfreak13]

My gosh, those are SO COOL!!!! =D Definitely something different. Going to read the other thread now.

 

[60G]

very cool i was going to do some but never got to it:thumbsup:

 

[60G]

how are the filefish are they easy to do?

 

[romanr]

60G
The Filefish have been a lot easier than I thought. I did have to spend some time figuring out what food they take to best but I have to say that Diver's Den does an amazing job giving you fish that are healthy, active and most importantly eating prepared foods. I don't think I would have tried a direct from the wild Filefish as I know that requires a lot more commitment than I could devote at this time. If you catch a pair on DD and you can meet their needs in your setup, then I say go for it!

 

[kidkams]

great looking tank absolutely stunning. A garden eel tank is my dream set-up amd once i graduate i plan on setting one up. great job with yours everything looks amazing

 

[60G]

ok thanks

 

[Korrine]

how many eels do you have?

totally cool setup :wildone:

 

[romanr]

There are 6, all pretty small.

 

[singold]

Very cool. I remember reading that article, also. Nice tank set-up!

 

[romanr]

Thank you for all the great comments. I just uploaded some better pictures to the original thread and included links to the high-res versions. Read my last post to play the "find all the fish" game.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1950568

 

[roushmustang]

looked at these a while back and after seeing yours i may buy one.
are these reefsafe and would they eat a cleaner shrimp, purple lobster, or go after a hawaiian flame wrasse

 

[romanr]

If you're talking about the eels, they won't really bother anything but other things may bother them. Of course of most importance is an 8in sandbed for them to burrow on.

 

[roushmustang]

you actually influenced me.... i built a mound for one (about 5") and i was messing with the current flow and love how it just sits in the corner of the tank piled up. it looks sweet but even sweeter once i get the eel in 2 months.

what are you feeding your eels

 

[palmer373]

i read that the garden eels get up to 12" or more so they will need a sandbed deeper than 5" and 8". id like to get one of these but i dont have a system with a 10" plus sandbed. GL with yours tho!

 

[TheH]

Are you worried about the sand eventually sliding down / evening out?

 

[romanr]

TheH,
I'll keep an eye on it to make sure it remains the right depth but the bed is a mix of different grain sizes with a good bit of coral bones mixed in to provide stability. The top 1 in of the sand bed is Florida crushed coral to keep the top layer from being moved by the water current. I'm hoping these precautions will keep the bed from moving on me.

 

[roushmustang]

also romanr what type of lionfish is that in the picture under your username and where did you get it

 

[Matt_Wandell]

Very nice and unique looking tank!

I'm glad you enjoyed the article. I assume the eels are congregating in the areas where the sand is deeper? Why not add more and give them more space to spread out?

EDIT: @ roush, that lionfish is a Dendrochirus brachypterus yellow variant.

 

[romanr]

Matt, thank you for the kind words and your article that help launch this endeavor. I don't know if you are aware that someone else wrote a garden eel article for the 2011 Marine & Reef magazine. So it looks like you started a trend. I am very happy with my garden eel setup and I'm glad I decided to go this route.
Yes, initially the garden eels setup shop in the not so deep parts of the sand bed. Over the next couple of weeks they moved around a bit with all but one setting up shop in the deepest(8in) part of the sand bed. I would say that the other one is in about 5 inches of sand and he seems happy there. They also seem to have paired up a bit with 2 sets having paired up to where they are in very close proximity and get along fine. One thing that caught me by surprise is how long it's taken them to really settle in. 2 of them were out and eating from week 1. The rest took about 3 weeks before they were consistently hanging out of the burrow and eating. I'm also surprised how they have taken to flakes and pellets and how they would not eat the PE mysids (too big for them I think).
To be honest I only wanted to end up with about 4 garden eels for the space I allocated but my survival rate far exceeded what others had told me to expect. I ordered 8 total. One was DOA and one magically disappeared but the other 6 seem to be doing really well. I may expand the sand bed by about another square foot to give them a little more room. If you ever write another garden eel article, be sure to mention the unique way they use to go potty. They almost extend completely out of their burrow to were their anus is just out of the burrow and do a little sake to get things flowing in the current. It is really a neat thing to watch. I'll have to capture it on video and post it here if I can catch them in the act.