I Might! Buy A Eel!

Eigdoog

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Hello,

I might buy a eel to go in my fish tank, but not sure if that is good :/

not sure if my sig is right so heres what i got

5 angel fish (2 are very big)
6 swordtails
1 silver fish (not sure what it is, not even lsp knows)
2 rainbow fish
1 bristlenose pleco
2 sliver dollers

thats my lot and ill be getting some clown loches soon as my old ones are not around anymore :rip:


so tell me what you think!
 
4 foot long
1 foot back
1 ,1/2 up


48"*18"*15" .L.....H.....W.
213 Litres Same as 47 Gallons

its the one in the pic
 
any kind really but i was told a fire eel was salt water :/ but i dont know ALOT about them only they get out if they can and they can die fast as they are like Clown Loaches
 
If the pic in your sig is of your tank, then no, its not suitable. A) Your substrate isnt sand B) There arent enough plants, hiding holes etc for coverage.
Have a look through the oddball fish index, you can find most of your answers on most fish in there...
I have written two spiny eel fish profiles (for the fire eel and the half banded eel), and there is one by CFC for the peacock eels, and there may be some others in there by other people too...

Mike
 
If the pic in your sig is of your tank, then no, its not suitable. A) Your substrate isnt sand B) There arent enough plants, hiding holes etc for coverage.
Have a look through the oddball fish index, you can find most of your answers on most fish in there...
I have written two spiny eel fish profiles (for the fire eel and the half banded eel), and there is one by CFC for the peacock eels, and there may be some others in there by other people too...

Mike


do all eels need sand as substrate then even if it has plenty of caves and stuff to hide in ?
 
do all eels need sand as substrate then even if it has plenty of caves and stuff to hide in ?
Yes they do, even if they dont burrow in it (which is what some people dont observe, so dont use it) they need it because their skin is very thin and easily gets infections, fungus' etc.
 
any kind really but i was told a fire eel was salt water :/ but i dont know ALOT about them only they get out if they can and they can die fast as they are like Clown Loaches

fire eels are purely freshwater. true they are escape artists, but that doesnt mean you cant prevent that. and they DO NOT DIE FAST with the proper care, same goes for clown loaches. fire eels can live for years, and i mean alot of years.
 
Echo Catfish Are Cool's post...

They NEED:

Sand
Heavy plant cover
Things to hide behind


Dont use heavy rocks unless they are sat on the tank bottom rather than the sand, they can get trapped under them. Dont have ANY openings inthe lid, you may need to cover ext filter pipes with a bit of old tights or stocking, dismantling the filter to extract an eel is Not Fun.

Eels use the substrate to hide in when stressed and they dive in there really fast, gravel and anything sharp will cut them and healing a cut eel is really hard.

If you dont have lots of plant cover then your eel will spend all its time either in the substrate, or dashing about madly, and basically... it wont live very long.

When you buy one, make sure its nice and fat, and ask what its been eating. Be prepared to feed a lot of live bloodworm at first as this is often the only thing they will eat at first.

For your tank size, you could have a zebra eel, a peacock or striped peacock eel, a burmese black spotted eel...

I have had all these, the zebra eels are doing well, the black spotted is doing VERY well.... sadly neither peacocks made it and thats purely down to feeding, neither would feed, either because the tank was too busy or they just didnt like bloodworm and never had.

Not feeding is very common with spiney eels, offer live bloodworm, offer it after lights out.

Your tank may well be too busy for a shy eel, of all my eels (barring the tyretrack type who lives in solitary due to being a Right Nasty B*stard) the Black Spotted is the best eater and he now competes well in a tank with similar tank mates to yours (i have lots of big angels, rainbows, etc)... this has taken a lot of time and dedicated hand feeding. He will now compete with the other fish but thats taken the better part of a year.

If your tank is very busy (and id think yours is), go for the biggest of whatever eel you get, going for a 5 inch peacock eel is going to be like paying to watch it die in your tank, shell out the money for a nearly full size one and you will have a much happier fish.

Zebra eels are the smallest adult size you can get, so they will pretty much always eat bloodworm, you can try getting them onto brine shrimp and daphnia but not all will take to it (one of mine will, one wont).

The two peacock types (actually totally different eels just a similar common name) and the black spotted eel will get big enough to take small prawns, my two bigger eels take prawns, bits of squid, mussels, cockles etc, although some of it needs to be cut up into strips.
 

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