snowflake eel with other fish?

[CoralBeautyII]

I have a snowflake eel in another tank that im tearing down (55g). My plan was to give away the eel but now im feeling bad, hes so cute.
I have a 220 gallon reef tank with soft corals, peppermint shrimp, cleaner shrimp, sally litefoot crab, emerald crabs, hermit crabs, several dozen astrea snails, nassuris snails, nerite snails.
Fish are green chromis, ocellaris clownfish, naso tang, hippo tang, royal gramma, lawnmower blenny, black blenny and a coral beauty.

The eel is about 18" now and has been living with three hermit crabs, a horseshoe crab and several turbo snails for the past 6 months. Other fish he lives with are damsels and a small niger trigger.
He eats a few times a week, only freeze dried jumbo krill from a feeding stick (ive tried other foods and he says no)

Now i realize adding him to my 220g reef would mean no more shrimp, but what about my other fish?
Would he grow up and kill off all my smaller fish like clowns and chromis?
He seems very gentle now but im wondering if thats due to the smaller tank and poorer water quality (nitrates are sky high)
By moving him into a bigger cleaner low nitrate tank would that mean he would all of a sudden "perk up" and act more like an eel and go on a killing spree??

Anyone have a full grown snowflake eel with smaller fish and crabs?
Or should i just forget his cuteness, get rid of him and move on?

 

[bertoni]

I wouldn't put that fish into a tank with small animals, but it might workk. The nitrate level doesn't much affect fish, so I don't think that's an issue.

 

[Tswifty]

You just have to watch small fish that he could swallow... Fish that sleep in the substrate such as small wrasses can also potentially find themselves in harms way.

I had a snowflake in a 55g reef with a small green mandarin dragonet for 2 years without any problems though.

 

[CoralBeautyII]

Do they get really huge? I keep reading 3 feet but i cant find any pictures of a 3 foot sfe in someones tank.
Do they get big and fat? Cause mine is super skinny with a small head.
I worry about the clowns most of all because when they sleep their kinda in a daze and dont move much

 

[Tswifty]

I think norm is around 2ft max... Mine was about 18" but once he hit that length he started filling out more and not growing in length as much.

The nice thing about snowflakes is that they may be 2ft long, but they don't need that much room because they spend most of the day curled up under rocks with just their head sticking out. Mine only came out at night and during feeding time.

I think clowns would be alright because they usually house themselves in annenomes or high in the tank behind powerheads or equipment. Snowflakes also have poor eyesight and I would highly doubt they would eat something that didn't bump them right in the nose. That's why I would only worry about bottom dwelling fish and fish that hide on/in the substrate at night.

That being said... that is just observations from my experience, and I for sure don't intend my opinion to be taken as fact for the whole species... ha-ha

 

[Mare100]

We have a Snowflake Eel in our 55 gal. tank and he is getting quite large. In fact.....he's one of the main reasons why said tank is soon going to be a 90 gal. tank! Right now, I'd have to say he is about 18" long and quite big around.

As for being safe with other fish, he is in there currently with a Moon Wrasse (who is quite large himself), a yellow tang, a Flame Hawkfish and a Clownfish. They've been living happily together for well over a year now with no problems. Although ours is a little finicky and seems to only want to eat Silversides and Krill.

M

 

[smspring]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12045508#post12045508 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mare100
We have a Snowflake Eel in our 55 gal. tank and he is getting quite large. In fact.....he's one of the main reasons why said tank is soon going to be a 90 gal. tank! Right now, I'd have to say he is about 18" long and quite big around.

As for being safe with other fish, he is in there currently with a Moon Wrasse (who is quite large himself), a yellow tang, a Flame Hawkfish and a Clownfish. They've been living happily together for well over a year now with no problems. Although ours is a little finicky and seems to only want to eat Silversides and Krill.

M

Mare100... your fish combo is very close to what I'm considering for my new 75G I'm setting up. What kind of CUC do you have in your tank? And does the eel or other fish harm them? Are there CUC crabs/shrimps/etc... to avoid with the eel?

 

[gotoneon]

I have a +30" snowflake in my 600 with lots of little damsels, 6 line wrase, long nose hawk, coral Banded which climes into the eels mouth and a bunch of larger fish. The tangs like to mess with the eel but he never messes with the other fish. The eel is slow and a good tank mate. He has not bothered hermits so a couple days ago I added a huge Sally lite foot. With in 30 minutes the two crossed paths and the eel went crazy like I had never seen. Actually had the crab in his mouth a coupe times as I was going for my net. Somehow the crab got away and I put it in my refugium. In 6 years I've never seen that eel move like that. My point is, I have everything else on your list in with my eel and no problems, but the sally might be a snack.

 

[rubensito]

The eel will elimate the shrimps, and I would think that the emerald and sally crabs will get eaten if the eel can catch them. As for fish, I've had 2 snowflakes, and one was really docile towards everything, and the other would try to eat damsels and clowns we attampted to keep with it. Considering the large adult size, eventually will probably be able to eat some of the small fish...but it will take a while to reach that size. Personally, I like eels, they are what drew me into marine aquariums after years of freshwater, so I would keep the eel in there, and eventually stock the tank around its preferences

 

[syrinx]

Yes the snowflake is one of the peg toothed eels- thus a issue for invrts moreso than fish. They can eat small fish- but if well fed they wont put the effort into it.

 

[Wasabibutler]

I also have a Snowflake eel. About 15". Added a Linkia sea star yesterday and the SFE decided to kill it during the night. Ripped one of Its legs to pieces. Found the star dead on the sandbed this morning.
And this is after I fed the eel yesterday. I have clowns and some tangs in tank as well as cleaner wrasse and a Dottyback which the eel doesn't touch. My cleaner shrimp even cleans the eel.

Really disappointed as I now know I can't put stars in my tank.

 

[e048]

Say good bye to your cuc and shrimps

Also make sure your lid is as tight as the tank he was in before because they will crawl out

Also any fish big enough to fit in his mouth is a potential dinner