snowflake safe with shrimp?

[Tennyson]

Basically like the title says. I'm thinking of getting a small snowflake eel. Baby size. Will it eventually eat my fire shrimp? Even if its well fed and tghe shrimp are larger then it, will it happen eventually?

 

[tibob32]

from my experience, anything that can physically eat shrimp, will do so

 

[tabwyo]

Anything swallowable is food.......

 

[Tennyson]

Okay got it. Just wondering though if there were any exceptions? Like if a young one was fed only squid or silversides? Anything like that?
I've also noticed some people keep them with shrimp and there's some sort of relationship where they aren't eaten? Is it likely for the shrimp to clean the eel or is that only large large ones?

 

[Juice It]

I got mine when it was tiny and it grew up with a cleaner shrimp and a coral banded as well as hermits and he doesn't bother with any of them.

 

[wickedfish]

My expiernce withs a snowflake eel. I bought one when it was small about 6 inches. It was fine the first year or 2. But once it starts getting bigger. I noticed my cleaner shrimp missing one by one every week. So i started feeding it more. Then my yellow watch man goby came out missing and another cleaner. I had to get rid of it. For the price of a snowflake for the price of 4 missing cleaner shrimp and goby combined. Lesson learned. Snowflake will do fine when there small, but as they grow bigger and bigger eventually you have to let nature take its course. Remember, to feed it once every 2 weeks' The more you feed it the faster it will grow.

 

[sanchoy]

Snowflake eel will attack almost anything in your tank including larger fish. They are blind and hunt by smell. Once you put food in the water they will attack anything similar to food. If they can eat it they will. If not they will nip at it causing harm. My trigger was bitten in the face once by the eel. Huge gash.

 

[Tennyson]

Okay. Last question is there any reef safe and shrimp safe fish alternative similar to eels?

 

[Juice It]

Get a dwarf golden moray and you will have a small eel that stays small and won't bother anything.

 

[Jerry W]

I really much depends on the individual fish, and making blanket statements can be misleading. I've kept a couple of SFE's before, one being well over 20 inches long. It was in a tank with two cleaner shrimp for a couple years and it never bothered them at all. The shrimp would hang out on the rock ledge above the eels cave and when the eel came out, they would routinely jump on it and clean it, including inside it's mouth, which the eel tolerated well. I also kept this eel with some clowns and small to medium sized fish and they went unmolested. IME, the real threat to other fish with a SFE is if the fish happens to get too close to the eel when it's trying to snag some food. I fed my eels with a wooden skewer and they learned to feed predictably. As always, your mileage may vary.