Info On Eels?

[Batzman]

Hey there, I am looking for something a bit different to go in my 125L tank, and I came across some eels, are they community fish? that will go with gouramis, tetras, danios, catfish etc? do they grow to big to fast? what would be the smallest eel? and would they be a bit hard for someone who has never owned/knows much about them?

cheers

 

[nmonks]

What sort of "eels"? Little things like kuhli loaches are easy enough to keep, but virtually all the other eel-type fish (rarely, if ever, actually true eels) are tricky to extremely difficult to maintain for a variety of reasons. Ropefish are escape artists without compare; spiny eels are fussy feeders and prone to bacterial infections (especially when maintained in tanks with gravel); freshwater morays are invariably brackish water fish. All eels are predatory to some degree or another.

In short, apart from kuhli loaches, you shouldn't keep eels without doing your research first, and always with the understanding that they aren't community tank fish.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Batzman]

What sort of "eels"? Little things like kuhli loaches are easy enough to keep, but virtually all the other eel-type fish (rarely, if ever, actually true eels) are tricky to extremely difficult to maintain for a variety of reasons. Ropefish are escape artists without compare; spiny eels are fussy feeders and prone to bacterial infections (especially when maintained in tanks with gravel); freshwater morays are invariably brackish water fish. All eels are predatory to some degree or another.

In short, apart from kuhli loaches, you shouldn't keep eels without doing your research first, and always with the understanding that they aren't community tank fish.

Cheers, Neale

Cheers for that, will look into kuhli loaches and speak to my LFS

 

[Ficious]

i would say most spiny eels that get larger than 8-10 inches probably wouldnt be good in a community tank. although my starry night eel has never taken a living thing from either tank hes been in. they tend to be shy sometimes and are hard to feed. luckily my starry night will take shrimp pellets and has grown over 12 inches (still a nice guy lol) but my peacock wont touch anything but frozen foods. stay away from tire tracks, fire eels...the big ones

 

[indigoj]

I have a zebra eel and a half banded eel both around 8" long and happy in a community with praecox rainbows, glass cats and raphael catfish.

They are sensitive but get them settled and they are fairly low maintenance, they do only take frozen or live food, mostly just bloodworm but I fool them and give them discus mix now and then (it has veg in it as well as beef heart).

They need clean water and a tight fitting lid, definitely sand substrate as they like to burrow and I'd avoid any very nippy fish.

In my experience they are a lovely addition to the tank as long as you research and provide for them.