Peacock Spiny Eels

[Canis-Equus]

Hmm...

I wouldnt be happy with it myself the risk is, in a blind panic he may effectively brain himself on the tank bottom.

Aquarium sand IS very expensive - which is why a lot of people with more sense than money dont buy it. I use playsand which i get from a diy store (B&Q but i think you are not in the UK somehow??), or Argos (catalogue store sells everything although its mostly all cack).....

Google for stores that sell kids playsand - my 15kg bag of playsand cost me £2.50!

 

[cuticom]

I live in Australia, I have looked for sand before, but all I found was brown sludgy stuff that wouldn't settle and turned the tank into a bog. The fun of being a rural kid LOL.

So far he ahsnt gone back under the gravel preferring to hide under the broken pots.

Oh and I bought some frozen bloodworms today, I assume I let a bit defrost then feed it? Okay well some of it was already a bit melted so with the help of tweezers I got a small amount into his cave. I cant see him to tell if he's eating them but their all mixed into the gravel, so if he's hungry he'd be bale to smell them and eat them rite?

Emma

 

[Canis-Equus]

I just chuck in a bit of a frozen cube, my lot find them alright if no one else steals them all. Maybe thats the best way for him - hes totally designed to find small wiggly stuff in the substrate so if you leave them as a lump he should find em easier.

I sometimes defrost and 'scatter' through the tank but thats mainly for my big tank which has a lot of v competitive fish in it.

You probably wont see him feed for a while, they are shy retiring critters when small and new to a tank.



Lol: ahhhhhh aussie that explains it (didnt think you sounded american)....... do kids not play with sand in Aus?

 

[cuticom]

Lol I'm sure they do, but I live in rural Australia, the play sand i have thats available as I said dosn't settles and turns the tank into sludge. I'm what'd be termed farm brat turned posh kid LOL, Our farm failed due to the drought, Dad got a good job as a computer programmer and consequently I ended up at private school LOL.

Anyways yeah we have pretty limited resources when it comes to small pets, my guinea pigs live in a converted animal trough LOL. To find a peacock eel at the pet store was kinda amazing LOl, I had to special order my rainbow shark.

The cubes are way to big to just put one in the tank, plus I think Kelvin(shark) would eat it and die LOL, he adores frozen bloodworm's.

I think Greg (eel) ate a bit I sprinkled it over the gravel and theres none there now, and Greg's not sticking his nose into various bits of gravel "hunting"anymore.

Can he live solely on blood worm or will he need variation? I've got some carnivorous bottom feeder pellets I could pop in.

Emma

 

[fish-r-fancy]

How about pool filter sand?

 

[Canis-Equus]

A variation is always better - if you can find things to vary it with - mine will take brine shrimp now, they go mental for these live, and they are easy enough to breed although a bit of a pita.....

What about a rounded pea gravel, the ornamental sort for gardens? (no, dont tell me.... in rural aus, people dont have pretty gardens.....)

 

[cuticom]

Lol I have no idea what pea gravel is, the stuff in the tank was sold to me as pea gravel.

Okay a new question, do these guys like having buddies? I just got a call from the LFS saying another two had come in and do I want them? I'm very tempted LOl, plus I got birthday money of my aunt, so I wont need to take money out of my tank fund to buy them.

Oh and Greg's definitely eating, this morning when I gave him some bloodworm's he went crazy over them LOL, spent the next half hour "hunting" them. Now I just have to work out how to feed him and not the shark. Kelvin the rainbow shark is starting to look remarkedly like a goldfish...

With brine shrimp can i just get a packet of sea monkey stuff and try that? LOL thats the only way I know to raise brine shrimp. I'll look into what else I can get him, am just glad he's eating something for now.

 

[cuticom]

One last question, how much water current can these guys stand?

I removed the gravel and was just fooling around with a power head to see if I could set it up for the filters to remove all the poop.

It actual worked quite well, Anyway I keep thinking how cool a stream of bubbles coming out of one of the pots'd look. The tanks currently being turned over almost 9 times an hour (okay I'm anal, I don't like the idea of fish poop in gravel lOL) and I just wanted to check that amount of water movement's be okay. Like I know with goldfish you need like 10 x filtration, and their not exactly the worlds strongest swimmers, so the peacock Eel'd be fine right?

thanks
Emma

 

[Canis-Equus]

Yep - these eels like quite fast moving water (not like, a tank that resembles a whirlpool.....) - i keep some of mine together - ive got zebras with an aral, and a dayi with my peacock..... they get on just fine - as to if they actively seek each others company im not so sure but it wont do any harm, no.

I think you really do need some form of substrate though - just have to get it shipped to you - these guys do need it and the problem with a bare tank bottom is they can get seriously freaked out.

Pea gravel is really smooooooth rounded gravel, no sharp edges - look for some at a DIY store that sells gardening stuff - naturally these eels live in heavily planted streams with a fairly murky mucky substrate, where they can hide from predators and rummage for food.

One option, possibly - is something i saw inthe salt water area on here - someones set up some plastic pipe in the substrate of their marine tank so their ribbon eel has somewhere to go. You could do this and put back the gravel you have - the eels should learn even if a bit stressed, where is safe to hide.

Em

 

[cuticom]

Okies thanks, the wtaer movement is mainly at the bottom of the tank, at the top its fairly gentle so he can get away if he wants.

I'll have a look into sand again, Could I just add like a small container of sand in rather then using it as a substrate all over the tank? I kinda like the bare bottomed effect LOL

 

[ringham]

To be honest IME i have found that in general Eels MUST have a fairly reasonably size layer of substrate and I think that an el in a mainly bare bottomed tank would get pretty stressed out.

Also, personaly, I hate sand and I use pea gravel (pea gravel being exactly the same as normal gravel but about half the size) for all over my tank.

Also your idea of a "container of sand" i would imagine would be diffeicult to maintain and prevent from overflowing etc. Either way I hope that your eel loves his new home and may I say he does look gorgeous

 

[Canis-Equus]

Nope - he wont like it.


There has to be some level of compromise between what WE would like in our tanks and what the fish we keep would like.

When we choose to keep what is basically a wild animal, we do have to make concessions to their needs - naturally an eel would live in such a murky heavily planted area, you wouldnt see him at ALL.

So the compromise HE makes is to live in a more visible, clearer, brighter environment......

And the one you make is to give him a good inch or more of sand, some plants and the food he needs.


That way, well the tank mightnt look the way YOU like it best...... but your eel will look excellent and fit and healthy and display his normal behaviour (which is often hanging inthe plants pretending to be a stem or a leave.... not hiding in a plant pot).

Bung in 2" of sand, shift the current to the upper levels of the tank, get some bushy plants and enjoy your pretty eel - when thats done then maybe get him some friends.

Em

 

[cuticom]

Well we did get the other two eels, if we didn't take them they were going to some lady who wanted them for a 10l tank for her son. I did speak to the lady, buts he wasn't interested in a 15 year olds opinion on whether or not two spiny eels would like her tank and eat flakes.

Anyway, I had to get my Mum to pick them up for me, and sadly she left the tank slightly ajar, one eel was still in the bag the other under my desk gasping for breath. I "rehydrated" him and he's back in the tank now, hes got a really big slime layer on him, but he's swimming and moving around so he should be ok

 

[Canis-Equus]

Thats lucky!

Fingers x hes ok after his little 'adventure' under your desk!

Id have probably made the same decision myself there given teh circumstances - now just track down that sand or fine gravel!

Whats your water quality like - id possibly research using the marine sand if thats really all there is but you might need to find a way to stop it turning the water really hard - have a rummage for gubbins on water quality and ph/gh etc on here.

 

[cuticom]

I am definitely looking for sand. I just need to find a place that sells it for less then $20 a kg, as I'm trying to save for a 4 foot tank for the eels and the shark, plus need to get a new tank for my goldfish, tho am shirking on the goldy tank LOL, good old rubbermaid tanks.

We have great water quality here, as our waters pure rainwater. The ph is always 7 and its always been well within normal params. How much gh/kh can spiney eels and rainbow sharks stand? I don't have a test kit for gh/kh but will def get one.

Yah I was a bit iffy on getting the two eels, but after hearing that woman describe in great detail the prison she wanted to keep em in well LOl, did I mention her tank dosn't have a lid? I know my set up currently isn't perfect for em, but they would prob be dead husks on the floor somewhere by now if I hadn't got em.

Emma