My Blue Ribbon Eel eats! (pics and videos)

[SantaMonica]

ReefJunkieOK: Thanks much.

Kolognekoral: Great to hear about this. Yours is the first, I believe, of someone else having one currently. Mine too goes for the "stick" first, before grabbing the food. That is why I started playing with him first, since he wanted to play with or "check out" the stick first anyway. Sounds like you got yours eating without any "pipes"... you must have lots of rock.

peteralexander: He's doing great. Many of the pics and videos of him are just a few days old. He does indeed have interest in two things in the tank: The coral catfish, and the blue gudgeon goby (both, interestingly, long narrow fish). He also really likes the frozen silversides I feed him, which also are long and narrow. Did your friend have places for his BR to hide?

[Kolognekoral]

Dear Santa...hmm, not right...dear SM...hmm..too personal,

Ha,

Hey Bryan!

yes, I have quite a few rocks in my aquarium and the den has at least three entrances. I used to have an echinata, but she blundered into the anemone and was lunch .

I know of a few aquaintances (met as the LFS) who, also, keep ribbon eels without a problem. We have never found them to be overly difficult to maintain. I remember, when I lived in San Francisco, they were considered very delicate and poor eaters. It never occured to me that they were still problematic in the states. It may just be the source, perhaps we are lucky in Europe, as most of our fish are imported by and from German expatriates. Quality is a huge issue in Germany (just look at the autos!) I used to get fish from a German in Kenya, but he no longer exports (retired). They were simply amazing! My eel probably came form Bali or Timor, I really don't remember. All I know is, it was not from the Philippines (although I have other fish from the P-islands, many collectors are excellent).

I think 'the stick' is a major tool to get these beauties interested in food. They seem to love a bit of play.

[reef_research]

Kudos to you both!

Do either of you use supplementals/vitamins at all when feeding?

Since the pipes seem to play such a crucial role in this, i must ask:
do you think that effect could be duplicated by using LR?

Thank you both for what you have done.

Thomas.

[SantaMonica]

ReefJunkieOK: Thanks... doing my best to decorate tanks around the world

Kolognekoral: Wow glad to hear. I have not tried strips of any kind of meat... maybe I should. You should post pics/videos of your guy.

peteralexander: He's going great. Not gone after anything at all in the last few days... just his food I give him. As for good/bad ones, if your friend did not have pipes/tubes, I know my BR would not have survived there.

[Kolognekoral]

Thomas,

I've not tried adding anything to the fish strips that are my fishes main diet, although I try to feed pieces with a few bones in them and I do feed whole shrimps occaisionally. I do feel that small whole fish would be better, live or frozen, as they are a more complete food. Admitedly, I feed these not very often, due to the logistics of obtaining live fish and still working! (they have only just changed the opening hours of shops in Germany. Most are closed at 6:00 PM, still. Change takes time ) As my eels changed colour from black to blue in the aquarium, I get the feeling the blue would be more intense if I fed something else into the diet, I just don't know what.

A den is all important to any of the eel family. Mine rarely comes completely out, prefering to poke its head from one of the openings and checking out the action. So fast as I feed the other fish, those little feathered nostrils pick-up the scent and the eel makes an appearance. I typically feed two pieces of fish at a time, as the angels and tangs are much more agressive and pull the food away. With two pieces, Elvira manages to snatch one away into the den.

[reef_research]

Do you think that two of these eels should be able to be housed together if allowed plenty of room and separate pipe systems?

Thank you.

[Kolognekoral]

Thomas,

I'm planning on trying it out myself. On the reef they often come in small groups, but I do not know if they are terratorial in an Aquarium. I did read a piece from someone who did have two together and one went back to being black after the other blue specimen was added. As to tank size, etc., I have no information. It may have been a public aquarium.

[29special]

santamonica I am proud of you and I do not even know you. I worked at a pet store and we got in a blue and black ribbon. For one they kept going into the overflow but getting them to eat was a whole new battle of witts. congrats!

[reef_research]

Originally posted by Kolognekoral
Thomas,

I'm planning on trying it out myself. On the reef they often come in small groups, but I do not know if they are terratorial in an Aquarium. I did read a piece from someone who did have two together and one went back to being black after the other blue specimen was added. As to tank size, etc., I have no information. It may have been a public aquarium.

What size do you and SantaMonica keep your individuals in?
I am working on some 3D models to show you a few of my ideas for pipes/DIYLR, so that we can discuss it here.
Thank you.

Edit: My graphics skills werent what I thought they were, but the design basically involves the entrances/exits to certain hole to extend and either exit or continue through a DIYLR substance, possibly ending in a close-ended cave.

[SantaMonica]

Whoops I see my post got put into the wrong sequence. Anyways...

Kolognekoral: Yes the stick (the grabber-took that looks like an eel with it's mouth open) seems very important. It's also a good judge of whether the eel will eat that day or not. When I put the grabber tool in by itself (with jaws open so it looks like a BR), if the BR comes out right away and comes up to the tool, then I know he will eat a fish that day. If he does not come out to meet the tool, then I do not have to try to feed him, since he is still full and will not eat.

reef_research: I have not used any vitamins for the eel food... just the regular tank-maintenance things. My (limited) opinion on LR is that it would have less chance than pipes, because light can still get in the rocks. I have 100 pounds of LR, and the BR will STILL never eat unless he is in the pipes. I would think this says something as to the preferece the BR has to total darkness. If you don't want to bury any pipes, I would at least try weaving some flexible ones through the rock. I'm thinking of two-inch flexible plastic pipe like you see on some vacuum cleaners. As for two BR together, I don't know... have not tried it yet.

Kolognekoral: Actually in all the pics I've seen of BR in the wild, they are always by themselves.

29special: Thanks. And your mention of the overflow just got me thinking: The BR must be looking for a dark place.

reef_research: Mine is a 90. But in reality, even when the BR comes out, he stays on the bottom in the corner 90% of the time. Maybe once a day (for about 20 seconds) he'll swim all over the top of the tank like you see in the pics. Thus, I would think that a smaller tank... even 20 or 30 gallons, might work as long as you had the three feet of pipe. As for your pipe layouts, remember the BR will spend most of the day with his head 2 to 6 inches out of the pipe; so you want this pipe opening to be where you can see him the best.

[cb747]

I picked up a Blue Ribbon Eel almost 3 weeks ago. To my amazement it ate 3 pieces of frozen silverside in the LFS. It was in a tank with many other eels.
I get it home and ofcoarse it doesnt eat anything for the next 2 weeks. I tried everything in the frozen department. So today i go to the LFS and pick up some minnows. I put one on the skewer i use for a feeding stick and put it infront of the eel and it wiggles a bit and bam its gone down the eels throat! I do this 2 more times and the eel eats again. Victory!
Based on my observations i notice the eel getting very excited when i feed the tank and the other fish go into there "feeding frenzy" I did witness the eel going after the cleaner wrasse during this. I also notice the eel likes to have his head in the flow of my closed loop.
I dont have any pipes in my tank and its also a BB tank. However i do have 3 piles of rock that are connected to each other. The BR resides on the left side and winds himself up pretty well in and under the rock work. I have a snowflake as well who inhabits the middle rock work pile. Ive never seen the 2 eels interact besides passing each other occasionally.
These are beautiful looking fish and they do require time and effort to get to eat. Once eating though its a walk in the park.
Santamonica i think its great what you accomplished and your tank looks awesome! Its people like you that are inventive and creative trying different things that can bring the prospect of these eels to not have such a dismal survival rate that they currently do. Good work!!

[SantaMonica]

Wow that's great that you got yours going so quick. Don't be alarmed if you hit a one-week no eating spell. As for the snowflake, mine took quite a while before he went after the BR, so keep an eye on yours.

[cb747]

I know eels can and do go for periods without eating. I only got concerned with the ribbon when we surpassed the 2 week mark. I was just going to feed him now but he was cruising the tank so im going to wait till he settles back under his rock pile then ill feed him and the rest of the tank. I will definitely keep an eye on the snowflake. Im hoping there wont be any issues among them.

[cb747]

Its now eating frozen! Gave it some silverside and also a lance fish and a minnow that had died. I fed it a minnow the other day while the lights were still off and it reradily ate thart too That was just something else i tried knowing that eels are nocturnal and there wouldnmt be any competion from its tankmates. Victory!!

[honey]

I'm planning on trying it out myself. On the reef they often come in small groups, but I do not know if they are terratorial in an Aquarium. I did read a piece from someone who did have two together and one went back to being black after the other blue specimen was added. As to tank size, etc., I have no information. It may have been a public aquarium. [/B]

Since you are in Germany, try getting in contact with Dr. Rüdiger Verhasselt in Düsseldorf, his contact info is in this link at the end:

http://www.seahorses.de/autorseaworld.htm

He has experience with them:

http://www.seahorses.de/muraenen.htm

His group (I believe they are black when young) :





At feeding:



The PVC home:



Viele Gruesse,

Honey

[cb747]

Wow those are some really neat pictures. I wish i could read German!

[honey]

Try Babel Fish online translation:

http://babelfish.altavista.com

at least it will give you a general idea.

Here is the same eel link in English, as you see, not much info online in the English version of it:

http://www.seahorses.de/eeltank.htm

Hon

[Kolognekoral]

Honey,

thanks for the link. I had stumbled across it about a year ago and then lost it (you'ld think something so easy one would remember!). This was were I had seen the Murane kept as a group.

For those who cannot red the German, Rüdiger mainly discusses the peaceful nature of ribbon eels, that they have delicate sense organs and therefore should not be kept with overly aggressive tankmates (such as trigger fish), can be motivated to eat via feeling some competition from tankmates (which we have all noted, they love the chase!) and rarely attack other small fishes. He also mentions that they are long-lived with 10 years being quite typical, social and enjoy swimming about in the early morning hours. He has never seen them eat sand (ghost) shrimps and seem to prefer fish. He even keeps them together with seahorses and pipefish!

His information is over 7 years old, published in 1999.

Well, off to the store to look for another ribbon eel! And a bit of food for Elvira.

[AfAqua]

Great info guys, thanks for sharing. Apart from screens on overflows, do you cover your tanks to prevent escape? Also do you think providing a pipe type structure within the tank discourages entry to the overflow?

[Rays]

Fantastic information! Good luck with your research and keep us posted. Thanks.

[heuerfan]

Great job santamonica, you have an amazing and very diverse tank! Love the maroon/red stand and canopy. The BR is awesome, must be stunning in person.

Look forward to seeing more pics/videos!

[Questin]

http://www.google.com/language_tools

Go here and you will see the Translate section where you can put in a website and have it traslate from German to English. Works great.

This is a great thread, really awesome job you have done with the Eels!

[Rays]

SM, Is your horse eating frozen?

[cb747]

AFaqua i have every opening covered in my tank. My overlows are closed off as well. I know these guys are escape artists and ive found gutter guard material purchased at my local hardware store to be very affective.
Thanks for the links to the translation sites. It was enough to get the gist of what he wrote.

[AfAqua]

Originally posted by cb747
AFaqua i have every opening covered in my tank. My overlows are closed off as well. I know these guys are escape artists and ive found gutter guard material purchased at my local hardware store to be very affective.

I'd love to get one, but have thus far been reluctant due to their tendency to go for a stroll. Think I'll give it a miss.