When Snowflakes Attack?

[Sharkbait74]

I have a 2ft thick-girthed Snowflake Eel who is fed 2-3 times a week on alternating foods (tiger prawn, scallops, clams, krill, squid). This is kind of a new situation for me since I have never had a fish perish in my 14month setup of this 200g FOWLR tank.

My question is, how can you determine if a fish naturally perishes and is simply being scavenged by the Snowflake eel vs when do you know your Snowflake is starting to kill off your stock??

My stocking list:
6" Bannerfish
4" Bannerfish
5.5" Harlequin Tuskfish
5.5" Magnificent Foxface
4" Longnose Hawkfish


I've had my Bannerfish in the tank since May along with the Snowflake. The Snowflake would always shy away from them... the Bannerfish were so bold... would swim through his lair, would steal food bits from his mouth. If anything, it appeared the eel was afraid of them... one spooked him into jumping out of the tank while I was feeding them.

Anyhow, Oct 21st I am missing my 4" Bannerfish. Found the bones picked clean 3 days later. Oct 26th I am missing my 6" Bannerfish and i can see the carcass in the eel's lair.

My otherfish keep a distance from the eel but most certainly don't shy away from the entrances to his lair.

It would be easy to say the eel killed them, but really... if the fish perished from other causes, I would suspect the eel would scavenge on the carcass bringing it into his lair. My question, what are ways to determine an eel attack vs eel scavenging on an already dead fish? Have any of you had fish perish within an eel tank?

I would've had to have torn apart half my tank moving large tonga rock pieces and severely pi$$ing off my eel to take a good look at the fish carcass... then again, if the eel was scavenging on it, it would obviously have bite marks or tares anyhow?

Any thoughts or suggestions? I've heard of Zebra's and Snowflake's becoming bitesize fish eaters.... but an aggressive 6" Bannerfish is hardly bitesize. Furthermore, I did have a small 3" RoyalDottyback perish within the tank... the body was left alone on the sandbed, although it could've been there for as little as a few minutes up to 18hrs... who knows.

Comments and opinions appreciated. What's the largest fish you've experienced a Snowflake killing with 100% certainty?

 

[JustinReef]

I would be surprised if the Eel could take down a 6" or even a 4" Bannerfish! I guess it is possible but doesnt seem right.

 

[billsreef]

Snowflakes aren't scavengers. While they can take bites out of bigger fish than one might expect, they tear bite sized chunks out that would be obvious. You would also observe damage to fish of that size from some unsuccessful attempts before the eel manage to successfully take it down. So it's far more likely those banner fish died for other reasons.

 

[LukFox]

If it was the eel I don't think you'd be finding bones like you are. The fish remains are likely in the eel cave because the flow directed it there.

If it's an eel attack, look to the fins for shreading and for slash marks or other wounds around those areas on your fish that are still present. I'd look for other causes of death at this point, though.

 

[Sharkbait74]

Thanks, all very helpful and encouraging. Even Bob Fenner was thinking unlikely that the eel attacked and killed the fish. I'm fairly confident the eel did eat the 4" Bannerfish though as he had a larger girth the next day... but I again, were the remains fed upon? It seems so unlikely as the eel has always been shy from the aggressive Bannerfish.

Water quality has no traces of ammonia, nitrite, pH 8.2, salinity is steady, and temperature remains fairly constant within 1.5oc daily. Nitrates are at 20ppm which from what I hear are reasonable for FOWLR. My other setups run at zero PPM.

Don't know.... and it's odd that it would be both the Bannerfish and not a mixture of the fish. The two fish were bought at the sametime, figured if it was something to do with their capture or habitat... it would've shown signs within 90days vs 5 months.

Anyhow, thanks for the feedback.

Lukfox, just realized your pic is the front of a Tuskfish. I like it.