Eels in a reef tank

dstalfire · #1 03/10/2007, 03:16 PM

Does any one know if an Eel like a Moray can be kept in a reef with out it polishing off all of my live stock? If so what kind do you recommend?

Thanks

Dan

jmick · #2 03/10/2007, 03:21 PM

Why not skip the eel and go with an engineer goby, when they get larger then look a lot like eels but are reef safe and very hardy and are rather inexpensive.

mrongi1 · #3 03/10/2007, 03:48 PM

You can get away with a snowflake moray if you can get a small one. They normally dont bother tankmates, but you have to use a feeding stick to get them to associate the stick with food and not your fish. Plus they are not as shy as some of the other species. Make sure everything in tank is very secure i.e. corals and especially rockwork because they can and will topple if not secure. But I would not recommend getting one. Also remember you have to stick hand in tank from time to time and an eel bite will cause a trip to the hospital to get stitches. Good luck!!

nosferatu51 · #4 03/10/2007, 04:31 PM

My snowflake is a fisheater if it is easily catchable. Anything very slow moving becomes a snack (he's lazy little SOB) and therefore I would NEVER recommend an eel in a reef tank with fish or other inverts. If it's an eel in a tank with a bunch of coral, fine. I just have a hard time recommending it if you are using the normal reef tank types of fish.

ToniYo · #5 03/10/2007, 08:34 PM

Hey,

Had a zebra and a snowflake in my reef tank and neither tried to eat any fish or corals, shrimp however are fair game. Mine however took great joy in seeing how much havoc they could reek when the lights went out. They knocked over anything not bolted down. They are also great escape artists. I woke up one morning to my 3 cats sitting in a circle staring at a stick on the floor (OK, not the brightest bulbs in the box!) When I went to pick up the stick to throw it out, it bit me! Eels excrete a substance that will harden and protect them for periods of time when they are out of water. I put it back in the tank and Viola! reconstituted eel!

Long way of saying my vote would be: approach with caution.

Thanks,

Toni

bgcook · #6 03/10/2007, 08:57 PM

i've got a two foot snowflake in my tank. i got him when he was about the size of a pencil. mine is a model citizen. i've taught to eat from a feeding stick when he was young and that seems to be the only way he looks for food now. he did rearrange the rock work abit, but i tried to accomodate him by building two piles of rock with a big sunken area in the middle. if you don't mind having to fix the rocks everynow and then it isn't that big of a deal. i don't feel mine causes any adverse effects. i will admit that i don't buy cute little gobies that like to hang out on the bottom, but any fish that hangs out in the water column has been fine. he doesn't even bother my coral banded shrimp. well thats my two cents.

greg

Pacific Reefs · #7 03/10/2007, 10:43 PM

I have a 1 foot snowflake that eats from a feeding stick as well. I had a pretty good sized six line wrasse that he caught and ate as it was sleeping in a rock. But other than that the snowflake is pretty cool.

Tang Salad · #8 03/10/2007, 10:49 PM

I have a one foot Zebra that is also very well behaved. My coral banded shrimp push him around whenever he gets nosy. Actually, my Scopas Tang and Flame Angel also go out of their way to push him back into the rocks whenever they see him. Quite neat to watch actually. The two fish 'broadside' him, he gets annoyed, and finds another hole to come out from.

He seems to be very agile too; never knocked over any rocks or corals. The only drawback I can see with him now is that he needs to eat a lot, and thus is a heavy polluter. But well worth it, IMO.