Snowflake eel question....

[jenstaley]

Hi there! I just got the aquarium of my dreams set up about 5 months ago, and I have been slowly stocking it. I now have 2 clowns, 1 stars & stripes puffer, 1 racoon buterfly fish, 3 damsels, 1 hawkfish, and the newest edition a snowflake moray eel. We are handfeeding the eel freeze dried krill, and were told he would eat once or twice a week, 2-3 pieces of the krill.... well he wants 2-3 pieces every day. Even if I only feed flake food, he comes out as soon as the food hits the water and is looking for a meal. I don't want to overfeed him, so the other day I decided to ignore him, and he went after 1 of the clowns, took a chunk out of his back before my husband stuck his hand in and actually grabbed the eel. the poor puffer got scared and puffed up for the first time ever, it was very tramatic (FYI clown fish seems fine except for the bite mark on his back) so, should I feel this eel as much as he wants?? I thought hand feeding was supposed to break the hunting instinct, does it take a while.... also, my husband usually holds the food a little out of the eels reach so he will come out of hiding and we can see him.... is this a bad idea?
Thanks for your help!
jen

[Poseidon]

Hi Jen,

A couple things- Clowns and eels are usually a bad combination as you have witnessed. I would decide on one or the other. Two hand feeding does NOT break an animals instinct to hunt, it does however put your husbands fingertips in harms way! ;) I had a snowflake a long time ago, they are cool, but are accomplished escape artists. Make sure you have a tight fitting lid on your tank. My .02, decide if you want a "community" or "aggressive" tank. You have a 50/50 mix going now and it could cause problems like missing clowns!

[Reefland]

To build on what Mike said, if the eel is hungry I would feed it daily.