Snowflake Eel question

[scottfaulkner11]

I have a 75g with 95lbs of live rock, sump, protein skimmer, 5 in. sand bed, weekly water changes. water quality is excellent. i have 2 purple firefish, dragon goby, scooter blenny, juvenile yellow-eye tang, 6 line wrasse, melanurus wrasse, and a geometric hawkfish.
i added a snowflake eel a little over a week ago and it has been doing well to my knowledge. made its caves on the first day and since then has had its head out all day and wandering around the tank at night. i have been feeding it silversides every few days. today it has not been hiding as usualy, its had half of its body hanging out of its hole laying sideways on the sand. i had to do some work in the tank and when i got close to it it quickly retreated back to the cave. while it usually comes out during feeding times for the fish it did nothing today. tonight i saw it hanging halfway out of another cave laying sideways on top of a rock, not moving at all. i placed a silverside on the feeding stick and placed it close to the eel and it slowly moved towards it, gently grabbed it, and sluggishly retreated inside the rocks.(it normally strikes the fish and bolts away to eat it.) as i watched it biting on the fish for a few seconds and peppermint shrimp grabbed the silverside and the eel just swam away back to a cave. i also noticed part of its fin twitching rapidly for a little bit. any help would be appreciated im not sure what is going on with it

[leebca]

There is no indication regarding the sizes of the marine life you have. I'd say you are pressing the biological load of the system. Have you taken ammonia and nitrite readings lately. Start doing that a few times a day. I always recommend that when a new fish enters the system that ammonia and nitrite readings be taken daily for a few days.

Silversides is a boring diet, not particularly a well rounded one. But I don't think you've had the eel long enough for this to be a problem.

The eel could be exposed to a pathogen in your tank. I assume from your post you don't use a quarantine process. This means that there could be anything in your display tank that may adversely affect these unique marine lifeforms. This could explain the 'twitching.' Something is annoying the eel - water quality, poison, and/or pathogen.

Lastly, the matter could be that the fish is not adjusting to captive life. This can be from a bad acclimation by anyone (catcher, exporter, wholesaler, LFS, or your process).

[scottfaulkner11]

Thank you for the reply,
As for the eel, the twitching has completely stopped (at least as of yesterday). I also discovered why it would not eat, it was already full. It had consumed both of my firefish that resided in one of the caves it frequents. Those are the only fish that have not made it in my aquarium, although its only been running six months. I have not check the ammonia or nitrates as frequently as i should, in fact its been about a month. The ammonia had seemed to have reach 0 and nitrates very low. With my weekly 20% water changes and protein skimmer running well i figured that would not be an issue but i will definitly take your advice over my assumptions anyday. After reading many of your posts that mention a quarantine, i went ahead and set one up today. As for the size of the fish, dragon goby is 4.5 in, melanurus wrasse is 4in., tang is 3in, scotter blenny is 3in., and the clown, sixline wrasse, and hawkfish are all an inch. the eel is a good 16-18 inches though and pretty thick. With this information would you still feel my tank is pushed to the limits? If so i will sell back a couple of the fish. I will also go purchase a wider variety of food for the eel. thanks again
-Scott

[leebca]

The bioload is a smidgen above the 'fully stocked' limit. There is no 'room' for growth. The Tang would be the one to move out, since it requires more swimming space than the 75 will provide. You might consider moving out one of the larger fishes, but really, if you want to keep the Eel and since it has a hunger for ornamental fishes now, I'd move out all the 1" fishes. Even if the Eel doesn't eat them, an attempt to eat them will hurt the fish, if not kill it.

Then there will be room for the others to grow. But eventually, they will need some adjustment as they will get to the same place of having pretty much filled the space.

You can get more info on stocking limits here: Fish Stocking Limit - for FO and FOWLR

I was going to mention about the Eel eating ornamental fishes, but I got the feeling the fishes were large, which led me to the assumption that there would be a space concern. Anyway, I'm glad the Eel is well, only not so good to hear why.