To EEL....or not to EEL

[Spectorman]

I have a mixed reef 92 gallon corner with tons of rocks. Its a mature tanks. Not mucisis not secured.
The question is,I have always battled with myself on putting a snowflake eel in my aquarium. Has anyone successfully kept an EEL in a reef with little to no, incident?
As for the things i fear to be eel lunch. My stock is a cleaner shrimp.....a couple crabs, snails ,watchmen goby,and a real nice pair of false percs.
I do have other fish but,they are not on the menu.

 

[Sounds Fishy]

I have a mixed reef 92 gallon corner with tons of rocks. Its a mature tanks. Not mucisis not secured.
The question is,I have always battled with myself on putting a snowflake eel in my aquarium. Has anyone successfully kept an EEL in a reef with little to no, incident?
As for the things i fear to be eel lunch. My stock is a cleaner shrimp.....a couple crabs, snails ,watchmen goby,and a real nice pair of false percs.
I do have other fish but,they are not on the menu.

Your inverts possibly will be lunch for your eel.Your clowns and probably your goby wil be fine if you start with a baby snowflake.As it grows your LR will be displaced unless it is secure.I had started with a 3 footer and they are very entertaining ,and generally docile.Once in a while they seem to blow off steam and start moving the insides of your aquarium around,a lot.

 

[Dmorty217]

Kiss all of your crabs and shrimp goodbye with a snowflake. No eel will leave the crabs alone, some may not eat the shrimp

 

[apcoleman]

I really wanted to have an eel in my reef but eventually decided against it. Instead I went with an engineer goby. It is now a few years old and around a foot long. It is a great and peaceful inhabitant in my 250 and have never had an issue. He moves some sand around but it doesn't bother me as I planed for that. Maybe a good alternative for you.

 

[hotelbravo]

i have had two snowflake eels that have been model citizens. my current one sleeps in a hole with a firefish. he lets the cleaner shrimp clean his gills. he has not touched a single snail or hermit. they can be very easy and peaceful. i say go for it

 

[Waters40]

My biggest issue with keeping eels is the escape factor (I have a coverless tank) and the fear of the eels knocking frags around.

 

[fairl80z]

This is my eel and grouper sharing a cave .Get the eel , mine is truly a model citizen , I have had him from about the size of a pencil. He eats out of my hand, I think your snails will be fine but I don't think the other inverts will make it

 

[Spslvr]

ive always kept eels in my reefs mainly snowflakes also a banded and now a golden dwarf and a skelator, ive found all of the above to be very good reef dwellers and with the exeption of one snowflake have not touched fish or inverts, 1 of my snowflakes became very aggressive at feeding and had to be removed but he was quite large...

 

[Dmorty217]

I have a Zebra eel I would consider reefsafe but again crabs and such are their natural prey

 

[Spectorman]

Awesome!.... Still on the fence. Food for thought for sure. Thanks y'all!

 

[Spectorman]

I chickened out. They had a nice one at my store too. I am worried about escaping. I don't have a secure top so,.....blows that out of the water.lol.....I did walk away with a hefty bubble coral,a nice lobo,and coral beauty angel though.

 

[ChimolaFish]

The eel MIGHT leave the cleaner alone, but he would most likely kill everything else invert-wise. If it came down to this eel being particularly nasty, then it could eat all your fish as well. However, the reason I would say to not get one is because a 90 is too small for any common eel other than a hawaiian dwarf. Contrary to belief, eels do swim sometimes, and when they do, they need room to cruse. A 2-3ft eel doesn't have that room in a standard 90, let alone a bowfront.

 

[hotelbravo]

The eel MIGHT leave the cleaner alone, but he would most likely kill everything else invert-wise. If it came down to this eel being particularly nasty, then it could eat all your fish as well. However, the reason I would say to not get one is because a 90 is too small for any common eel other than a hawaiian dwarf. Contrary to belief, eels do swim sometimes, and when they do, they need room to cruse. A 2-3ft eel doesn't have that room in a standard 90, let alone a bowfront.

my eel does live with the cleaner shrimp like i said in a post he even lets the cleaner clean him. ALSO my eel lives with 3 peppermint shrimp, a few glass shrimp, a dozen or so hermits, fish, snails, and even a few gorilla crabs i have been unable to catch. he has not touched anything living in this tank. this is my second snowflake eel that has had this exact same behavior towards its tankmates. my first snowflake unfortunately jumped ship before i had a screen cover.
and where are you getting these numbers for minimum tank size everywhere online and in books say under 90 gallon for a few different species of eel so i am very confused as to what your talking about.

 

[bryhan67]

I've had a lot of eels and the zebra moray seems to be most mellow.