Snowflake Eel..should I or shouldnt I?

[STE.vicious]

Hi

I have 130lt and am really interested in getting a snowflake eel and have done a lot of reading up on it but have a lot of mixed information. Was wondering if anyone has had or has one and could tell me of their experiences?

Do they knock corals/live rock/gravel over and around all the time? Are they difficult to feed? Are they active or mainly just hide out?

I know it will out grow my tank in a year or so but I am happy to take it back to the LFS when it comes to that.

Below is how my tank is set up...is the eel really going to be constantly rearranging everything that its going to be annoying?

 

[Sniperhank]

I had one for a short time. It became more active as time went on. I fed small amounts of mysis bi-weekly, eventually learning when I would feed and come to the surface to do so. They are quite smart, can even be hand fed from what I have read but isn't something I would want to do myself with their bite.
The biggest thing to consider is their ability to escape. When I bought mine, it took them 20 minutes to catch him because he would jump from one tank into the other. This is common behavior, even to the point where if 2 tanks are side by side they can jump into other tanks to eat smaller fish if they feel like it, so a very secure lid is necessary.
In terms of rearranging rock, this isn't someting I noticed. What I would suggest is ensuring that your rockwork is firmly in place, as my eel took over the burrows of a watchman goby and can easily dig their own if warranted. This burrowing could cause the rockscape to collapse, worse case, which could crush the eel or cause things to fall apart.

 

[Godfrey]

+1 on snipers advice I have one now and I love it so it would be hard to give it away when he got to big. You should definitely have some type of burrow for them I started out with some buried 1 in PVC and he took to that nicely and also made burrows of his own here's some pics of mine. I feed by hand but it took awhile to train and I feed frozen krill twice a week. Any questions jut ask!

 

[STE.vicious]

Do you think I would need more rock? I read about the PVC but unfortunately I wouldn't be able to put that into the tank.


Have you had any issues with them eating your fish? Or has it limited what you have put in the tank?

 

[woody390]

Sorry to Hijack but have any of you had issues or experience with them and Ocellaris Clowns? would they be too small to be kept with Snowflakes?

 

[Godfrey]

I have mine in a tank with a small 1.5 in maroon clown and a bunch of cromis all started pretty small and I've never had an issue he has eaten some of my hermits but I figured that would happen but he doesn't do that all the time. Yea I personally would add more rock mine likes to stay in it an awful lot even when eating hell sometimes grab a piece of krill and take it to the rocks to eat

 

[woody390]

Is he fully grown yet with the smaller fish? Or still growing

 

[Rfirman]

They key is to target feed the snowflake if you have other fish. My roommate started messing around when he was watching over my tank one weekend and my eel at my clown. My roommate was playing with the food and the fish. The eel just missed the food and got my clown.

 

[melosu58]

I had for a while. They were not that hard to keep. Here is a pic of mine when I had it.

A word to the wise though. They are excellent escape artist and need a tight fitting lid. They will jump on you if you dont.

 

[Godfrey]

My eels about 15 in long and still growing. It pretty much leaves the fish alone but they are half blind so I can see how it can mistake fish and food while feeding