[Mikeman]

My parents said I could also get like a 55g tank and then they would help pay for the lights. And I was wondering who has a eel in a reef, I know it can be done since I saw someone do it on this board, My main concern would be what kind of clean up crew, I've heard that that they will sometimes not eat cleaner shrimp, but $19 is quite a risk. Would starfish be safe like red serpant stars, what about nassurius and crerith snails.

also for a fish list

2 gold marron clowns
yellow tang(little fin)
snowflake moray eel
possilby one more fish maybe?

[fishguy_8]

anytime a eel is involved with inverts its a disaster waiting to happen. some people get lucky and have a very mild tempered snowy and it wont touch the smaller fish and inverts but there is always the chance, a pretty good chance, the eel will eat anything that will fit in its mouth which can tend to be quite large. and as you stated 19 dollars is a expensive meal for a eel.....heck i bought supper for me and my girlfriend for less than that so.....if you want an eel an aggressive tank would be the way to go and the way you would take care of detritus and such would be heavy skimming and frequent h20 changes. now if you want to try and sneek a snail and some hermits on him in there maybe they will be ok and they would help out on the detritus but.....there is always that chance i dont think you'd really want to take. anymore questions about eels please do ask you dont want to put one in a situation where you'd regret getting him. i love eels and i'd hate to see someone regret getting one of them they have great personalities....oh another thing about eels.....give them plenty of live rock to hide in and they will be more likely to be active.....because if its always out in the open its going to be stressed but if he/she knows there is tons of live rock to hide out in he/she will be confident in coming out to play
keep me posted on your decission.
Jon
p.s. reefs and eels......it can and has been done but you'd want to pick corals which are not too picky because with a bigger bioload youd want to pick corals like xenia, mushrooms.....etc....you wouldnt want to be getting into the sps and such which are a little more demanding and sensitive.....any more questions?

[Mikeman]

Thanks fishguy

I have had eels before so I'm not a newbie to them. I'm gona try to feed him heavily so maybe he won't think that they look so tasty. The only thing is I don't really trust hermits very much, but I may have to go with them anyway, I'm gona try and get really big hermits, and really big snails. I heard on another board that queen conch were good because his puffers couldn't get a handle on the smooth shell, maybe that'll work with eels.

Do you think that they eat bristle worms, and copepods, or even speggetti(sp) worms, I'm gona go with a deep sand bed and I hope that'll be enough to keep the tank clean.

Also Im gona buy a 45lbs box of figi live rock, plus the 20+ I have right now so he'll be nice and happy.

The only corals I'm gona keep are some like
meat corals
leathers
xenia
green star polyps
yellow polyps
colt coral
shrooms
maybe one open brain


I'm looking for corals that will spread fast so the tank will fill up with the those quick I'm so excited and the first one that my lfs gets will be going to my 29g tank and then when the 55g tank is ready plop he goes!

anything I should change?

[fishguy_8]

ok the corals sound pretty safe i dont know much about the meat coral but im pretty sure its not too demanding. i dont think your eel will eat many pods or worms i think if he is really that hungry and he sees a shrimp or something like that he'd sure pounce on that first. keeping him well fed is all well and good but when you keep him well fed there is going to be that much more......feces in the tank so you'll deffinitely want to get something to try and keep that to a minimal. having the tank set up for a while is a good idea that way you do give you corals time to spread and such. and with xenia....it'll spread real fast i got some if you'd like some you are welcome to it. i like the KISS method here Keep It Simple Stupid.....thats what i did with my 20 for my eel because the more stuff there is in there the less space he has to hide. now if you get a younger eel their mouths are pretty small so you may want to feed a brine shrimp flake and some marine cuisine to him....thats what my guy at the lfs said he was feeding this lfs is actually pretty nice in the sense that he knows what he is talking about and he has a policy where your tank must be up and running for a year in order to buy an anemone....i like that one. whenever you buy something he gives you some heads up on your purchases he's a good lfs guy! Keep us posted mike
Jon

[Mikeman]

There was a snowflake at the lfs today, and I thought about buying it. It was around 8" long and 30 bucks, but I don't think I'm ready yet. I'd like to atleast have the other tank before I get the fish.

thanks

[fishguy_8]

yea i think it was wise to pass this time....gives you more time to think things through and get the other tank up and running.
Jon

[Mikeman]

I'm still looking for that clean up crew, are cucumbers safe?

What about this


2 queen conch
1 tiger cucumber
those mini stars from ipsf

what do you think?

[fishguy_8]

mini stars im positive wont be even detected by the eel.....cucumbers i'd say they are probibly pretty safe as well as the conch but i dont have any experience w/ them so i'm just guessing because they do get large.....the key is lots of lr. though....i think if you have a lot of space for him to hide he'll decide its not necessary to hide and he'll come out and play.
good luck
Jon

[FishKid]

I didnt read the whole post, just i case anyone mentioned this before..

Ever consider a garden eel? They have them at www.exoticfish.com.
They stay small, so should be reef safe!? HTH

mark

[chromis]

garden eels are nearly impossible to keep. I would never reccomend one to someone unless they were going to dedicate an entire system that meets the special requirements of this eel. I would stick with a snowflake, chainlink, or zebra although if you can find one, the grey moray(red sea) is my favorite. As for reef safe there are several people on Reef central that have zebra morays in reefs.

Andrew

[FishKid]

I didnt know that! sorry

Mark

[SHUMALA]

Mikeman,

I had a snowflake in my reef without a problem. It was very small when I got it. I put him in a separate container with lots of holes (small enough so he couldn't get through) and trained him to eat frozen food that way. After 2 weeks I released him. He never ever considered one of the shrimps or fishes as his meal. Never caused any troubles (except grows very fast and can knock things over).

He's really fun to watch and has the best personailty I've seen in a fish. It was a 'show' for my friends to watch me feed him via a stick. Usually feed once every 2-3 days.

It was sad to see him go back to the LFS after half a year in my tank as he got too big for my 65G.

HTH

Alan

[Mikeman]

I just thought of a great idea!

I thought that it was going to be a long time(maybe 1 year) before I would be able to set up my tank because live rock costs so much! So why don't I make my own! I'll be able to seed it with the live rock that I have right now, maybe by the end of the summer I'll have it going. Man, that makes me happy.

Shumala

What kind of fish did/do you have? I think thats a pretty good idea, especially since I really want to keep my clowns(2") and my 2 yellow tailed damsels(1") All the snowflakes I've seen that are under 10" long don't have very big heads, small; enough that I don't think that they could eat my fish, do you think after awhile, when he gets big enough to eat them, he won't give it a second thought because he'll be so used to feeding on frozen foods, and seeing them not as a food item for so long?

Wow I'm so excited

I also think my parents might get me the 55g tank for my birthday, that would really help.

I'm gona go over to reef central now and se what experiences they have.

[Mikeman]

I just checked Dr. Rons forum since I posted a thread over thier and he said, that he's only guessing but few fish eat serpant stars, mini star,cukes, and cleaner shrimp so I should be fine with them, he thinks

He also said that queen conchs need lots of sand so they probably aren't a very good choice.

[SHUMALA]

Mikeman,

I had a pair of fire gobies, a pair of false percs, and a diamond goby in there. There were snails, hermits, cleaner shrimps, and lots of corals in the tank too.

Just a warning that the mouth can and will open up HUGE even thought the eel is small in diameter.

I usually feed him squid or pieces of shrimps and its fun making him chase the feeding stick for the food.

[Mikeman]

Wow you kept firefish!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

that's amazing

in rons fenner's article he states that snowflakes are invert eaters, and most eels leave cleaner shrimp alone. I may have to try the CAGE thig to see if he'll leave my perty fish alone!

thanks all

[SHUMALA]

Don't hold me responsible if he starts munching on ur fishes!!!

I think it was just a matter of luck, but i always had the net ready in case he has that ichy feeling.....

[Mikeman]

well I've learned that snowflakes are invert eaters, I'm sure they wouldn't mind a fishsnack, but I'll be more worried about my cleaner shrimp.

thanks guys