Snowflake moray attacked Niger trigger

[VaderWS6]

One of my tanks has a 12" snowflake moray and a 3" Niger trigger. Anyway, I woke up this morning, and the snowflake had ripped off half of the triggers face over night! I've never heard of anything like this happening before. The Niger trigger acts like nothing happened, and I keep both of them well fed. Anyone else experience this with a snowflake moray? I hope his face doesn't heal up in a strange way....

 

[pinkie]

In the middle of feeding, mine grabbed one of my puffers and tried to pull him down to his den. One he realized it wasn't a piece of dead fish he let go, but still scared the heck out of the puffer. Never had it attack a fish randomly though, I hope your Niger heals up alright.

 

[sean48183]

My snowflake snaps at fish but never bites them. Most of the time he is getting his head kicked in by my sailfin who is usually the most docile fish in my tank. Are sure your niger didn't scrape himself on the rocks? That happens from time to time.

 

[VaderWS6]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11808132#post11808132 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sean48183
My snowflake snaps at fish but never bites them. Most of the time he is getting his head kicked in by my sailfin who is usually the most docile fish in my tank. Are sure your niger didn't scrape himself on the rocks? That happens from time to time.

Yup, definitely not a scrape. Its a major injury, and you can see where the eels jaws pinched part of his gill and pulled it out. That side of his face sticks out about half an inch now. He eats fine, no problem swimming, but he hides most of the time on the right side of the tank, usually in the top corner. He won't go near the eel...

 

[sean48183]

Your niger will probably be scarred up but will probably live. He may even pay the eel back down the road. Makes me worry about my eel a little bit now. That's pretty nasty.

 

[Triggerman1964]

I don't agree with the opinion that snowflakes are not aggressive.I lost four fish to mine.Anything that moves is food to these guys.Sleeping arrangements(hiding places)are very important,as these guys hunt at night.Some people never seem to have any problems,not so with mine.Keep him well fed.

 

[Puffalicious]

my little 9" snowflake tried to eat my 6" arc eye hawkfish and of course it fails cuz the hawkfish is too big..... but I think I have a crazy snowflake because he keeps bothering the hawkfish...

The hawkfish would be perched up on a rock and the eel would come from behind and nip him on his tail. Sometimes the eel pushes the fish around from behind too

 

[prime99]

I had a 24" snowflake eel eat a dragon wrasse and red coris wrasse at night while they were buried. I would be concerned with a small eel (12") already being predatory toward your fish. If you feed the eel well, he could easily be 20+" by next year.

 

[sean48183]

Interesting with eels. Mine gets his head kicked in by all my fish even my little blue with yellow tail damsel. In my opinion he is the biggest wuss in my tank. He is only about 16" right now so it might change but right now I worry for him some times.

 

[FMarini]

I would say in general terms SFE are not fish eaters, however, remember that these eels are essentially blind and if you feed the eels in the open tank (and not on a stick in the rockwork) they will frequently grab whatever fish or moving object is in the scent trail.
So I ask is this eel stick trained? are you feeding it fish meat, and not shrimp
Did you read this article on fish-safe eels? and why eels like SFE grab fish
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-12/fm/index.php

 

[mattsilvester]

I think Frank hit the nail on the head - that, and are you feeding it enough.

Generally speaking, a fish like a snowflake is a specialised crustacean feeder - it is not designed to eat fish - and unless it was either hungry or threatened it would probably not risk injury taking on unnatural prey.

I see in your signature you have a 29 gal moray tank.... is this the tank? It could be that it felt threatened by the confines of your tank?

Also, it sounds like the fish is much too big for the morray to view it as prey, hence it wold seem to reinforce the territory or threat scenario.

I'm assuming there are loads of hiding places?

 

[Triggerman1964]

My eighteen inch snowflake ate a three inch hawkfish,spines and all.He had a lump in his abdomen for a couple of weeks.He was very well fed.I got him ,smaller than a pencil,and watched him grow to about 22".
Too many people underestimate what these guys can do.Some are much meaner than others.

 

[VaderWS6]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11834651#post11834651 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FMarini
I would say in general terms SFE are not fish eaters, however, remember that these eels are essentially blind and if you feed the eels in the open tank (and not on a stick in the rockwork) they will frequently grab whatever fish or moving object is in the scent trail.
So I ask is this eel stick trained? are you feeding it fish meat, and not shrimp
Did you read this article on fish-safe eels? and why eels like SFE grab fish
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-12/fm/index.php

I've always fed the eel by stick, only shrimp and crab. I never feed it out in the open either. The other day, he finally ate my Niger trigger... Didn't even leave a trace.. I've never owned a snowflake eel that was this aggressive. He'll even grab the feeding stick and shake the crap out of it. Its amazing how strong this eel is for its size, he moves and relocates 5lb live rocks with ease. He even picked up a rock almost the size of a baseball in his mouth, and moved it to the front of the tank! I guess I won't add anything else to his tank, he'll have to live out the remainder of this life in solitude.

 

[sean48183]

I gonna have to restructure my rock work hearing that. He could be about to do some serious damage.