The Illustrious Peacock Eel

[Gankutsuou]

There are several questions I have concerning it.

A: is $10 a good set price for one?
B: They only get 8-10" on average, correct?
C: will they not bother to eat cardinal/glowlight/rummy nose tetra? I'm pretty sure rummynose get too big, but the other two?
D: Does 1 TBSP of salt per 10 gallons harm it at all?

 

[nmonks]

A lot of this depends on which species you have. Be sure and read CFC's excellent summary of their care, but also check my additions at the bottom as to the correct names for each fish. The hobby muddles them up all the time.

Anyway: A fish is worth what you want to pay for it. $10 to a spiny eel in good health isn't unreasonable. Maximum size varies, with 30 cm being about the tops for the commonest species, Macrognathus siamensis. Macrognathus circumcinctus is half that size, but Macrognathus aral is twice as big. So identify your fish before buying!

They will eat any fish small enough to catch, so again, Macrognathus circumcinctus will be fine with a rummy nose but Macrognathus aral will almost certainly eat it. Regardless, I'd plump for deep-bodied tankmates, such as glassfish or bleeding heart tetras.

Salt is unnecessary. Information that spiny eels need salt is erroenous and perhaps came about because these fish are sensitive to various skin infections if kept in tanks with gravel. If you keep one properly -- in a sandy aquarium -- salt isn't required. Even with the salt, gravel sooner or later scratches the skin and the fish die from horrible sores on the body. By the way, most Macrognathus seem to do best in groups, not single. They also LOVE floating plants, which will also stop them jumping out.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[Gankutsuou]

check my sig. The reason that I'm wondering about salt is because of the dragon goby, not him.

And I have the perfect idea for a floating plant. It's already in my aquarium and doesn't hav to be planted. I know the tier track eel that was there got super sad when i bought the plant but not it

poor guy....

But yes. I was also wondering because i thought of getting a "Freshwater flounder", and it would also be okay in that amount for a senegal bichir apparently. It was just a whole "Would this be okay if ____ much was in?"

And if it was, I'd rather have a flounder and a dragon goby than the Giant cories and Angels I plan to get.
A TBSP per 10 gallon is the most they get in the best LFS I have around here. The rest don;t even bother. So if it works with a TBSP per 10 gallon, Then I'd be extreemly happy, because then It'd be worth keeping the goby and getting me a flounder And then i could go full sand subtrate with definate thinking, because EVERYONE in the tank would be happier with sand than with gravel.

EDIT:

And I am aware that a dragon goby needs more salt, but this would be the best enviornment i could supply should the LFS's not want him....

 

[Dan04COBRA]

check my sig. The reason that I'm wondering about salt is because of the dragon goby, not him.

And I have the perfect idea for a floating plant. It's already in my aquarium and doesn't hav to be planted. I know the tier track eel that was there got super sad when i bought the plant but not it

poor guy....

But yes. I was also wondering because i thought of getting a "Freshwater flounder", and it would also be okay in that amount for a senegal bichir apparently. It was just a whole "Would this be okay if ____ much was in?"

And if it was, I'd rather have a flounder and a dragon goby than the Giant cories and Angels I plan to get.
A TBSP per 10 gallon is the most they get in the best LFS I have around here. The rest don;t even bother. So if it works with a TBSP per 10 gallon, Then I'd be extreemly happy, because then It'd be worth keeping the goby and getting me a flounder And then i could go full sand subtrate with definate thinking, because EVERYONE in the tank would be happier with sand than with gravel.

EDIT:

And I am aware that a dragon goby needs more salt, but this would be the best enviornment i could supply should the LFS's not want him....

I'm confused, you are putting all these fish into a 10 gallon?

I think you are overstocked...

 

[Gankutsuou]

No no. At this time tomorrow, I will have a 40 gallon tank set up hopefully

 

[ringham]

But won't the tank than need to be cycled?

either way, if you only want a small eel then try to avoid a fire eel (black with red bits and avoid the tyre track eel (you can't miss it). Both of these will grow 2' + although there is no guaruntee. Also if you want to gt a small eel then it is almost compulsory to have sand. Larger eels don't mind so much at having gravel.

$10 is pretty much the same price as everywhere else so, yes.

IMO i would say that your cardinals should be fine, the pic in my sig is a fire eel. Aren't they gorgeous

 

[Gankutsuou]

yes. they are pretty.
And yes, I do have sand.
And yes, it does need to be cycled.
and yes, I did fail to clone the tank. The media was not enough
So yes, I will have to ut the peacock eel in after 2 weeks of fish cycling to get it in sand substrate.
And yes, this time I will avoid culture shock.

Sigh~ and the salinity no longer matters. It looks like my Dragon goby wont make the night...

Edit: And thank god I am.....

he's swimming around on his own again, and upright
not at his best, but doing okay.

 

[nmonks]

Dragon gobies do best in salty water. To be honest, I wouldn't mix the two kinds of fish, but if you were going to, hunt down a genuine brackish water spiny eel. Macrognathus aral is one such beast. Then you can run the SG at 1.003-1.005, and that might be a happy medium for both the spiny eel and the dragon goby. It would not be ideal for either, but it might (no certainty) be OK.

In terms of temperament, they should be fine together, though dragon gobies are territorial. They have very bad eyesight, so don't be surprised if it decides the spiny eel is another dragon goby.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[Gankutsuou]

nevermind. It is all irrelevent now.

The dragon goby passed away due to the culture shock of the move, where i forgot to slowly introduce them via. bags on top of the water.

Sigh.... kinda sad....