Brackish Community Tank Questions

[David941]

I want to get a peacock eel or two but some sites are saying brackish and some are saying fresh. I had the tank planned out for fresh but now I have to rethink the tank mates. Would 2 eels be fine in a 40 gallon or should I stick with 1? What should I put in there with them? How much salt do I add? There's not many brackish fish options here and would like to stay as cheap as possible. If I can't find much I'll probably have mostly mollies and maybe a catfish. Shrimp would be cool but I'm not sure if that would work. 

 

[Chad]

I have kept a couple of peacock eels over the years, great fish. It can be difficult to acclimate but once it's established it's hardy. Water conditions must be good. If you have plants put rocks around their base or the eel will knock them loose when it hides. They are a great community fish. They don't just get along, they pretty much don't care that other fish are there. They will eat fry and very very small fish. But mostly they eat insect larvae and worms.
 
As for brackish or not the answer is not. Their natural habitat is in vegetated rivers and flood zones. I've kept all of mine in fresh and they lived a nice long life. Some of the eels get into the delta of the river and come into brackish conditions but they don't live there. They just tolerate it.
 
One important note: Do be sure that the substrate is soft as they will hide in it. Make sure there is nothing sharp like gravel. 

 

[David941]

I have kept a couple of peacock eels over the years, great fish. It can be difficult to acclimate but once it's established it's hardy. Water conditions must be good. If you have plants put rocks around their base or the eel will knock them loose when it hides. They are a great community fish. They don't just get along, they pretty much don't care that other fish are there. They will eat fry and very very small fish. But mostly they eat insect larvae and worms.
 
As for brackish or not the answer is not. Their natural habitat is in vegetated rivers and flood zones. I've kept all of mine in fresh and they lived a nice long life. Some of the eels get into the delta of the river and come into brackish conditions but they don't live there. They just tolerate it.
 
One important note: Do be sure that the substrate is soft as they will hide in it. Make sure there is nothing sharp like gravel. 

I plan on using river rand. I decided on the eel because I have a HUGE pile of varying sizes of PVC pipe laying around. For the plants I was gonna attach some low light live plants to rocks and wood. I'm gonna have a canister filter rated for 100? gallons so the water will be extremely clean. I'm gonna have a much easier time finding tank mates now!! Thanks!

 

[Chad]

He might hide in the PVC but if you have river sand that's probably where he will spend his time. That was one of my favorite things about them, how they hide in the sand with just the tip of their head sticking out. If your substrate is close to their body color (mine was) they can be hard to spot, which is great fun. And yes, tank mates will be easy. Mine never bothered any of the other fish. Every so often a cory would find its nose and spook it but it never tried to bite or chase the cory. Which reminds me...I do recommend a lid of some kind as they are known to explore outside the tank...they don't know it's outside the tank...but the carpet is where they can end up. I use a screen top on mine and that's plenty. I don't like closed tops for several reasons. 

 

[David941]

He might hide in the PVC but if you have river sand that's probably where he will spend his time. That was one of my favorite things about them, how they hide in the sand with just the tip of their head sticking out. If your substrate is close to their body color (mine was) they can be hard to spot, which is great fun. And yes, tank mates will be easy. Mine never bothered any of the other fish. Every so often a cory would find its nose and spook it but it never tried to bite or chase the cory. Which reminds me...I do recommend a lid of some kind as they are known to explore outside the tank...they don't know it's outside the tank...but the carpet is where they can end up. I use a screen top on mine and that's plenty. I don't like closed tops for several reasons. 

I have a screen lid but I was gonna try to find a way to keep the standard fish tank lids closed better. Could I fit 2 eels in there? My list is 2 eels, 1 betta (or a couple gouramis), some angel fish, balloon mollies, lyretail mollies, a pleco, probably some cory, a small/medium catfish, 3 african dwarf frogs, a few different rainbow fish and maybe some danios. Anything I should add or remove? I also like shrimp. Are there any that would do good in this tank?

 

[Chad]

I've never kept two together so I can't answer that question from experience. I don't know if they would be aggressive toward conspecifics or not. Some fish, while tolerating fish of other species, will attack their own in territorial disputes. I'm not sure if the peacock is one of those. 

 

[David941]

I've never kept two together so I can't answer that question from experience. I don't know if they would be aggressive toward conspecifics or not. Some fish, while tolerating fish of other species, will attack their own in territorial disputes. I'm not sure if the peacock is one of those. 

I think I read that they can housed together. Are there any good shrimp to add in there?

 

[Chad]

Shrimp are probably small enough for them to want to eat. I didn't keep shrimp with mine.  

 

[BrackishVoss]

I am currently housing 1 peacock eel In my 75 gal brackish tank SG 1.012, also housed with him are 5 peacock cichlids, 3 dog tooths, 2 julidochromis transtcriptus, 1 leleupi, 1 rainbow shark, 8 blue leg crabs, 2 zebra hermits, 1 electric blue leg hermit, 1 emerald crab & 2 Plecos...