snowflake moray eel

[dadonoflaw]

i really want one of these for my reef and would like some personal experience from people keeping them with snails crabs and the like.

[TheSaltwaterGuy]

Mine does nothing to snails or hermits. Although he has eaten a few cleaner shrimp in his day.

[dadonoflaw]

thats what i have been hearing but i have to mandarins and i was wondering about them as well. what do you guys think?

[TheSaltwaterGuy]

How big are the mandarins compared to the eel?

[dadonoflaw]

well i havent gotten the eel yet. the green mandarin is full grown and the psychedelic is about 1.5 in. so about full grown. if i get a smaller eel would he get used to them and be less likely to eat them?

[Chibils]

From what I've read of them, yes. That said, he might decide one day that they look tasty and try one, especially as he gets larger. If he's the last thing added to the tank, he usually has the least sense of 'place.' That said, anything that will fit in his mouth (and eels open their mouths really wide when they want to), he may decide he wants to eat. It's up to you if you want to take the risk.

[dragonforce]

I have a small snowflake eel in my 37 tall. He lives with a cbs, pair of clowns, and a royal gramma. Great eel!

[philter4]

snow flake morays are crab and shrimp eaters, I know that fish don't always do what they are supposed to in a tank, but if well fed it will PROBABLY be less likely to eat fish. As far as a mandarin is concerned, they are toxic to eat so he will likely leave this guy alone. Still, I don't think this is a very good combination.

As far as other animals I have a young snowflake and a small goldentail moray in a FOWLR (I do keep shrimp and hermits in the tank). The 2 eels have very similar feeding habits and neither has eaten any other fish in my tank, even though they could. They have left a pair of atlantic scarlet ladies alone, but they were in before both eels, and they eat any crabs or new shrimp I add, even cleaners.

[dadonoflaw]

wow thats terrible. i was thinking of trying but without a cleanup crew. how can i keep a tank without crabs. well if i just keep snails and other inverts and get it small i would probably still lose my mandarins wouldnt i?

[ScubaDiver93]

Just sayin Zebra Morays are 99.9% reef safe

[dadonoflaw]

zebra morays? so point one is crabs? if wellfed does this lower the chances? how do you guys feed your eels? is that a particular eel or a family

[philter4]

I think the mandarins wont be eaten, they are poisonus for other fish to eat, and a small snowflake couldn't get at a hermit, just remember his favorite food is "true" crabs and shrimp. The eel wont bother sesile inverts or coral, so snails, serpent stars and the like will do a good job of clean up. Also coral banded shrimp, and most Stenopus for that matter, are cleaners so if they are there first you may have a better chance of putting them together. What else is in your reef? Is it a coral tank, or other?
What are the mandarins feeding on, do you give them pods, or are they eating mysis and such? IMO keeping an active eel like the snowflake isn't the best situation with shy feeders like mandarins. The eels daily activity will disrupt the mandrins habits.

[Jerry W]

Personal experience; kept a large (20+ inch) SFE with several hermits, snails and shrimp and he never molested them. Crabs like sallys, porcelains, emeralds, etc.. are likely to be eaten. Spot feeding the eel regularly can reduce the chance of it going after your tank inhabitants. Not fish eaters by nature, the real risk to fish would be if the fish were too close to the eel as it tried to grab onto some food. I used a feeding stick and conditioned the el to feed predictably. Never lost a fish to this eel.
hth

[dadonoflaw]

its a coral tank. i have mostly sps and lps in there. i have 5 lyretail anthias, a yellowtail damsel, a yellow tang, a powder blue tang, a niger trigger, a male lubbock's wrasse, a pair of flame wrasses, a green and psychedelic mandarins, a coral beauty angel, a flame angel, a copperband butterfly, a pair of ocellaris clowns, and a flame hawkfish

[xxtriggermanxx]

if you like the look of an eel but are affraid of him turning into a predetor,you might want to try an engineer goby. I loved my snowflake until i found him curled up on the carpet but i found the gobie at a lfs and he turned out to be the perfect substitution for an eel.

[crabbejoe]

That's a good suggestion triggerman! Engineer gobies are very eel-like and really cool.

[crabbejoe]

From what I've read, snowflake eels are the most reef safe of the eels, and if you feed them with a feeding stick, they'll be less likely to bite their tankmates. But from what I hear they really like to try escaping. Maybe someone else can back this up.

[xxtriggermanxx]

Problem I had with my snowflake was they have horrid eye sight ! they hunt with their sence of smell. but with all the pumps running in a typical reef tank smell is everywhere. I had one snatch hold of a hippo tang. didn't kill it but i had to change my pants

[laf-reef]

dadonoflaw - is your tank covered? If not I would recommend that you do not add a snowflake eel. SFE's are escape artists and without a tight cover the eel will get out. Good luck.

[LukFox]

With your fish list, I can't say I would recommend a snowflake. If yours gets a taste for fish it can get really bad, which isn't all that uncommon. You have many fish that sleep in the rocks (where the eel lives) that are just the right shape to swallow. I wouldn't chance it.

The goby, a smaller eel like a dwarf (Gymnothorax melatremus), or a zebra moray would be a much better choice. A covered tank is still a must.

[dadonoflaw]

yea i was looking at the zebra moray is an affordable alternative but the article i read suggests that they are also prone to snacking on tank mates. right now i have eggcrate on there but i will be getting a canopy built very shortly. does anybody have experience keeping the zebra moray with mandarin sized fish