Peacock Spiny Eels

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While at our LFS today I saw the most amazing fish, for some crazy reason it was labelled as a reticulated loach, but after looking through some sites I can say with certianty that it's a Peacock Spiny eel.

Anyway I sooooo love this fish, and am very very tempted to go back and buy it. But first some questions.

I have a tank that currently houses a 3-4" Rainbow shark and two apple snails, the tanks easily big enough for an eel, but are those fish compatible? I can easily move the apple snails to another tank, but kelvin the shark stays, so I guess if he's not compatible with an eel I just wont get the eel.

Food, do they need live food? or can they be kept on flake food? I cant feed live food but could give raw meat if required

Any extra info wpould be appreciated, I'll go off and do some more research now too.

Thanks
Emma

 

[Canis-Equus]

IF its m. siamensis, it might be ok ifyou have sand rather than gravel and your tank is well laid out so the shark doesnt feel threatened. If he hasnt a 'den' under some bog wood or something he will probably chase the eel around and in all likelyhood, the eel will die.

Eels often can be a pain to feed, if you cant feed live bloodworm or brine shrimp you may struggle - not all eels will be like this though - just some (my m. siamensis is a pain).

They will ONLY eat meaty foods, ie bloodworm, brine shrimp, earthworms etc, bigger eels will eat prawns, cockle, mussel - although i think my BIG eel (not an m. siamensis) would actually consume anything he could physically swallow.....

To put that another way. No. They wont eat flake. Ever. Or pellets.


You do need to be sure it is m. siamensis - if its m. aral it will be too big for that tank at full size, if its something else-- the possibilities for tragedy are endless.

 

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Its definately a peacock eel, as I said it was labelled as a reticulated loach, but I looked through all the spiny eel pics, and the peacock eel was the only one to have that line of spots on its tail and no other markings on its body. The eels were a sort of yellowish grey colour and each had a small row of black spots near it's tail, one had 4 spots and I think another had 5 spots.

I have a gravel substrate but from what I've read you can stop them burying in it by giving them plenty of places to hide. My tank has over 20 caves made out of pieces of broken pots, and I can always smash up a few more pots if needed LOL. The shark has his own particular cave, and patrols a couple of others but otherwise ignores the caves.

With feeding I have freeze dried brine shrimp and blood worms, are they okay? I could breed some more mosquito larvae but their literally an absolute pain, I'm allergic (allergic as in swollen bright red face from a single bite) to mosquitoes so willingly raising the larvae aint much fun. I can also supply an endless amount of earthworms and crickets, as well as a few types of meats such as raw fish. I could raise brine shrimp, I'm not entirely sure on that aspect, my attempts at raising seamonkeys for my paradise fish was disastrous. With live food its more live fish that I cant handle, I'm a vegan myself and willingly feeding cute little platy fry and goldfish is a bit beyond me LOL.

Thanks for your help!

Emma

 

[Canis-Equus]

Id still be a tad wary about the gravel - that said, my peacock eel doesnt burrow..... he doesnt hang around the bottom much at all, just does loop-de-loop around the angels ..... suspect hes a freak though.

With sufficient places to hide, he should be fine, diving into the substrate is a panic behaviour for the majority of spiney eels i reckon, for the most part they like to hang out in plants or in little shadowy places, pretending to be twigs and stuff.

Im afriad they wont eat freeze dried (ill let you know on mosquito larva when its mosquito season here..... too early yet)..... they are mid to bottom feeders and freeze dried just dont sink that well.

Ive even tried pre soaking it with some garlic food additive but they still arent interested.

Go with frozen or live bloodworm to start - then try for brine shrimp if you can breed them (although they are not that nutritious).... then basically, anything small meaty and wiggly - ive found the redder colour the food is the more likely they will go for it.

I suspect mosquito larvae would go down well, but they spend a lot of time at the surface, only sinking to avoid predation at the surface (i know my tetras and angels go mental for them).

 

[MojoDex]

i dont think your rainbow shark would stand a chance againt the eel if it upset it my peacock eel has a habit of sticking its head into the gills of fish that upset it not alot most fish can do except run away lol! i feed mine frozen bloodworm and always have always eat for me, they can be escape artists as well so a lid of someform is a must sand if preferred but if u have peagravel that is acceptable mine used to be able to dog in pea gravel no problem at all now he has sand though but overall great fish

 

[cuticom]

Hehe bloodworm is just the nice name for mosquito larve, down here the eaiest way to get it is a stick a cup of wtaer oustide, give it a couple of days and voila a pile of bloodworms. I'm just allergic to it which is why i'm hesitant over it.

Yah the gravels peagravel.

I honestly dont think the eel could get its head in Kelvins gills, I've seen a full grow rainbow shark and a full grown eel and that just dont work

 

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Well I now have Greg the peacock eel. he's still acclimatising but he is sooo awesome LOL, very round and chunky too, so the flake food the pet store was feeding musta agreed with him. i've got some live mosquito larvae for him for now, but was thinking that it might be possible to ahnd feed him the freeze dried blood worm? Like wave it in front of his nose LOL

Edit- sigh that went well, I let him out, he freaked out and now he's somewhere under the gravel LOL, when do they come back out?
Emma

 

[Canis-Equus]

When all is well in his eely mind.....

Probably just after the point where you think hes died.... or escaped.

Sorry to be flippant - its like how long is a piece of string - he should come out eventually, prolly will come out for a look around after lights off (personally id leave them off now for the day or the most part of it anyway).

Unless you actually saw him eating flake with your own eyes, i wouldnt believe it for a second Im afraid. By all means try the freeze dried bloodworm but im pretty sure mine dont eat it (they may, ive never seen them do so though). Id soak it first, then drop it in rather than drop it in dry. Again hes more likely to eat it in the dark.

The bloodworm/mosquito larvae are the best bet (here i call mosquito larvae those little T shaped things that hang at the surface and then wriggle away really fast as soon as anything hits the water - not quite the same as bloodworm, different species of mosquito i guess)

Good luckw tih him - get some pics?

 

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Well I ended up taking a lot of the garvel out and adding in some more broken pots for dark hidey holes. Greg is now sitting in the middle of the tank with his head stuck under the gravel LOL, it looks quite funny. Gah I look away for a second and he dissappears again LOL.
This tank dosnt actually ahve lights and is fairly dark as my Rainbow Shark is also nocturnal and it kinda takes the fun out of it when they never come out. So I never bothered buying a light fixture and placed the tank away from the windows

Emma

 

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Yay he came out, I cant get him all the way out, as he's chosen the pot as his hidey hole but I least got a pic of him

Isnt he gorgeous? LOL

Edit- he overcame his camera shyness-

Edit- I had another idea with feeding, do these guys eat baby snails? the tanks he;s in is overrun with baby pond snails
Emma

 

[cane76]

nice pics
that gravel looks too course it should have a sand substrate

 

[rixy]

agree with cane.you must take the gravel out straight away and put sand in.the eel will bury itself in the sand and be much much happier.

 

[cane76]

if it tries to bury itself in that gravel it could cause injuries to the eyes or scales

 

[Canis-Equus]

Well done, great photos!

I agree with the others, he really will need sand - if he gets a fright and dives for the gravel, being soft bodied he may do himself an injury, and again being soft bodied its very very hard to treat them.

AFAIK they wont eat snails at all - they might if you squished the snails first, but havent ever noticed any of mine eating them.

 

[cuticom]

Could I just remove the gravel all together? Sand isnt an available substrate here, the only stuff thats here is $20/kg and is made for marine tanks. I can just go bare bottomed though, theres still plenty of caves etc for him to hide in

Edit- forgot to add, I was aware the gravel might not be best for him so took ost of it out, he cant actually dig under it, he could prob gets his head in under if he tried but not the rest of him.

Right now he's finally found the little hide out area I built for him and he seems to quite like it, I accidentally put the wrong flash on the camera, he freaked and went under the smaller pieces of pots rather then into the gravel. But I can def totally remove the gravel if needed, its just there for decoration.

Heres a pic of Greggy the awesome eel LOL

Hehe he's really active, moving all over the tank

Emma