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any eel fans?


jellyfish

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I love eels as well. I had a gold dwarf eel that was in my nano which I loved and was always a model citizen and never tried to climb out. I ended up selling her when I upgraded to my 60 gallon because I was afraid there were too many open spaces and she would crawl out.

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I love eels. Very sadly I don't currently have any-

That said I'm trying to locate a ghost ribbon or skeletor eel for my reef tank and have plans to one day keep a species specific eel tank.

Snowflake eels are excellent eels are great reef citizens. They are pebble toothed- meaning they are adapted to eats crustaceans- and they adapt well to tank life. All eels require a cave to feel secure in- especially when first introduced to a tank. With any predatory creature I suggest buying the smallest one you can- juveniles are more likely to adapt to a captive diet and things like hand feeding. Eels are very close to blind so feeding with tongs or a feeding stick is kind of a must. I could blather on and on. I'm kinda eel obsessed. Make sure you have no open drain holes or places for them to wriggle thru. Eels can theoretically push themselves up to four inches vertically out of the water along the glass to escape so you'll also really want a good covering for the tank. I've read that a lip along the edge of the top - like most acrylic tanks have will prevent escape as well.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Never kept an eel, but the blue ribbon eel is a dream fish for me! Have only seen them in photos/videos and would probably go nuts if one was really in front of me.

ribbon-eel.jpg

I also like dragon eels. Saw a stunningly bright orange one in a sketchy shop once for such a low price it made me think it was smuggled. Otherwise, I don't recall ever seeing another in person. 

dragon-eel.jpg

The most likely eel I'd keep someday is the zebra eel, since I've seen many successful tanks housing them with a variety of reef fishes, and they are not known for being impossible eels to keep alive or outrageously expensive to acquire. Would take a much bigger tank than I have now, however!

zebra-moray-eel.jpg

Photos all swiped from google image searches to make this thread pretty. :)

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Blue and black ribbon eels are very difficult to keep alive. I put them in kinda the same camp as flame scallops- they look cool and you don't see why they'd be difficult and yet they are. One of the guys who works at OIAB kept a blue ribbon for a few weeks. He said it ate a bunch of his inverts and then died.

I finally broke down and ordered a zebra Moray. He arrives Tuesday. I'm excited. Zebras seem to be pretty widely regarded as the chillest of the big morays. The are pebble toothed, get pretty big, are blind as bats and IMO are pretty dopey looking. I love em.

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93b0219f74b078f6bca0472cdd8d9358.jpg

Dunno if this photo upload will work- but he arrived yesterday- well packed and very healthy. He quickly found a cave to hide in and was quietly resting there all day. I put a large krill on the feeding stick near him last night and he took it after a minute or two. And today he's out a bit- checking things out.

I named him Chumley.

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14 hours ago, nate.hobart.1 said:

93b0219f74b078f6bca0472cdd8d9358.jpg

Dunno if this photo upload will work- but he arrived yesterday- well packed and very healthy. He quickly found a cave to hide in and was quietly resting there all day. I put a large krill on the feeding stick near him last night and he took it after a minute or two. And today he's out a bit- checking things out.

I named him Chumley.

Very cool Nate!  Good luck getting it acclimated - sounds like he is adapting OK so far.

I also remembered one of the eels I was thinking of... he was in the display tank at Souta's when it was located off Powell.  He took up residence in one of the circulation lines (closed loop I think) and Rick had to cut that one off so that he didn't blasted constantly - was the perfect eel hiding spot!

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Hah. Yep, as expected, last night he must have found himself a cave I can't see him in at all. I was worried he'd found some hole or some such in my elaborate eel proofed tank top. Friggan eels. I have a screen top that extends over my overflows and an elaborate if janky working of plastic and tape covering the small gaps around my return pump hoses and various wires.

When I got my golden dwarf a while back I didn't see him for almost two weeks.

To answer the questions above- their aren't really any non coral safe eels. Eels don't ever pick at corals- they are just messy eaters which can stress finicky corals in systems lacking the filtration- like any predator in a reef tank. That and depending on the species they can be large and clumsy and knock over rockwork and such. Mostly eels are known for eating fish and inverts. Zebra Morays are crustacean eaters - so fish are relatively safe- crabs and shrimps- maybe not. I suspect my coral banded shrimps gonna be alright. Many eels tolerate or even seek out cleanings from cleaner shrimp if they were already established in the system.

Zebra morays can reach 5 ft in length. He most likely will not get that large however. My system is large enough for him. Eels aren't active swimmers they prefer hanging out in a cave, [emoji41] chillin.

Thanks about the bubble coral. It's one of my OG corals got it as a n itty bitty colony years ago.

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  • 2 weeks later...

10 day update. Chumley hasn't hurt a thing in the tank. I've seen the coral banded shrimp right up next to him and have witnessed no aggression and today at feeding time my cherub angelfish (who could very easily fit in his mouth) actually swam right up and across his face almost swatting him with his tail. Totally reef safe Eel.

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