Thinking about a garden eel

[Cody Ray]

Currently I have a 29 gallon with a 3" sand bed. I want to add another 3-4" of sand in order to facilitate a single garden eel. As of late the only inhabitants are a pair of ocellaris clowns and a nice mat of calurpa (some may consider that an oxy-moron ) on about 1/3 of my aquascaping. I currently feed 1 cube of mysis shrimp once a day (these clowns are FAT!). Does anybody have any suggestions on other things that I could add in order to better meet the needs of a garden eel?

 

[Bret61081]

not sure about the care, but they are very cool creatures! my LFS had one for about w week...unless you were looking for it, youd just think it was some sea grass! I would actually recremend geting some turtle grass or something similar since thats what they use for protection...to blend in...good luck! looking foward to some pics!

 

[Monkeyfish]

Garden eels really need at least an 8 inch sand bed to feel at home - they like to bury themselves in the substrate.

 

[AdidaKev]

Also make sure you have a lid for the tank. They like to escape.

 

[SDguy]

They need extremely deep sand beds (they don't just burry themselves, they live in vertical burrows). Also, they feed on plankton floating by. They really need a species tank to themselves, set up for their special needs.

 

[Angel*Fish]

I have a spotted garden eel in my 100g - He is living in a 11 x 11 open area about 3 in.from the front of the tank where he can see his reflection & probably feels safer near "another GE". My sand bed is as much as 6 in deep in that area, though he has chosen a spot that is about 4 in deep. They need as large as possible open area without rocks as opposed to our typical reef tank

He shares this open area with a jawfish & a shrimp goby. The current is such that it blows the food right across that area which is a necessity.

LFS told me they were just like other eels just smaller-- I didn't know about needing the deep deep sand bed mentioned above til he was in my tank & I was reading all about them. I wouldn't have bought him otherwise.

That said, he at least seems fine. He eats small mysis, gut loaded brine, frozen cyclopeeze & live artemia nauplii as it passes by. It's very important that the current bring the food to the fish as he's afraid of the turkey baster & will not exit his hole for food.

Very cool fish - would love a species tank of them - I'm sorry I put him in my tank without doing research first

HTH

 

[Cody Ray]

It sounds like you lucked out on that one, imagine if you were BB?!?!? I would love to have a species specific tank for them too, I would imagine the best way to do this would be to buy the deepest system one could find and build a stand that could cover up the ant farm effect caused by 8-10" of sand.

 

[Jens Kallmeyer]

HI

I haven't had them myself, but two friends in Germany have them. They like calm tanks, so no bullies as tankmates. They are jumpers, so have a high rim or a lid.
They need sand to dig in, but in both cases they chose not the area with the deepest sand, but somewhere else. The burrows are apparently not straight downwards.
Still 3 inches seems to be a minimum.

Best wishes

Jens

 

[Angel*Fish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6904910#post6904910 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ChinChek787
It sounds like you lucked out on that one, imagine if you were BB?!?!? I would love to have a species specific tank for them too, I would imagine the best way to do this would be to buy the deepest system one could find and build a stand that could cover up the ant farm effect caused by 8-10" of sand.

BB would have been a nightmare.
One more thing - they like the company of others of their species. Apparently you could have something like 10 or more in a 30g tank dedicated to just GE's (with no LR.)