Snowflake Eels - Re Salinity

[simonas]

I have a 4ftx 18 x 24 at moment which houses two toadfish ( Grunniens) and two G Tiles ( freshwater morays). Its a jewel aquarium with Juwel filter and just those fish in there. The salinity is 1.014sg at the moment but I intend to slowly raise it for the fish that are in there as time goes by.

However there have been posts recently about the snowflake moray and G Tiles being kept together, the toads are a fat 7 inches and the G Tiles about 15 inch each. The tak is running well and has been for a good few months with no issues between fish and the all eat very well. I have seen one in a LFS and if I could keep one I would as they are gorgeous.

Couple of questions really as I have no marine experience only brackish.

I appreciate and suspect that my salinity ould be too low for the snowflake. what would be the ideal salinity for the snowflake and would that be too high for the others. As its fish only would I be fine carrying on with just filtration or do you HAVE to have skimmers and other equipment for a snowflake

Clearly the tank won't be big enough long term but my 150g for my larger tropicals will need changing to bigger tank in next 18 months or so and the fish I'm talking bout here could have that tank and I plan to consider some Monos in that as well but thats in next 18 months or so

A lot of questions I know but I'd never considered the chance of a snowflake yet really like them, yet can't push the missus to full marine just yet!!!

thanks Simon

 

[andywg]

I appreciate and suspect that my salinity ould be too low for the snowflake. what would be the ideal salinity for the snowflake and would that be too high for the others.

It is a bit low in the long term, though many marine fish are far more euryhaline thatn previously thought (they can live in water with a lower SG than originally believed). Many people keep marine fish at 1.018 without issues and it also saves on salt costs (see below for more on salt costs). Short treatment terms at 1.014 are quite common for treating SW Ich. I am fairly sure that G. tile can handle that level and the toadfish should be ok too. Once the water gets to 1.014 it has passed the point at which water is trying to get in and has change to trying to get out, so the increase should not be too harsh.

For better advice you could do worse than drop a PM to nmonks on what sort of SG those fish can live in.

As its fish only would I be fine carrying on with just filtration or do you HAVE to have skimmers and other equipment for a snowflake

There is no requirement to have skimmer at all (even on reefs) and the filtration you have is fine for a Fish Only tank. There is a trade off with the skimmer though. Inoversimplified terms the skimmer removes dissolved organic compounds before they can start to decompose (and thus enter the nitrogen cycle as ammonia) which means less nitrate is produced and thus water changes do not have to be so frequent. Without a skimmer you can still do well, just that water changes are necessary more often, which means higher salt costs.

As with so much in SW it is the trade off between big cost up front, or larger recurring costs. there is certainly nothing to stop you setting up tha tank and then saving up for a filter. In the long term for a SW pred tank you really want to look at a skimmer at least twice as large as necessary, and really three times as large to help keep the water in good condition.

 

[simonas]

Hi Andy

Cheers for the reply. Probably what I wanted to hear and I shall get the snowflake this weekend!!!

I only feed the eels and toads every two or three days as they mainly take lancefish, prawn and Mussels and I rotate them really. They all look healthy and have very eager appetites. I nearly lose my fingers everytime I feed from the eels and the toads make a fantastic noise when they eat

Just so I fully understand the salinity levels, I would be better rasing mine to 1.018 over next week or so and what would be a sensible long term level, as I haveto confessnot knowing what salinity sea water/ marine water is

 

[andywg]

marine is generally classed as anything above 1.018. Most of the word's oceans are at 35 ppt salinity, which at tropical temperatures gives a specific Gravity in the range of 1.025 to 1.027.

Rather than rushing up the salinity level over a week and risk a re-cycle as bacteria die off, acclimatise the eel to the current level, it should be fine in the short term (2-3 months). Then, with every water change add in water that is a little higher than you have now so that the salinity gradually comes up.

Another way to gradually have the salinity come up is to top up for evaporation ith salt water rather than freshwater.