What fish to keep with my new eel?

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jamal-188

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I got an awesome deal on a 150gallon rr tank last weekend so I"m going to set it up as a predator tank. I'm picking up an 2ft black edge moray http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=1481 this week at work to keep in my 72g until my new tank is ready. He is an awesome eel and tears frozen fish apart when fed so I"m a bit worried about what to keep with him.

I have a couple thoughts but am not real sure on how correct they are. I"m thinking that if he's well fed he probably won't go after fish in the tank unless they are hurt/sick and a real easy meal. I'm also thinking that I should probably stick with large fish say 6"+ but I"m still worried he may tear them up....any thoughts on this?

BTW, some of the fish I'm thinking of are a black volitan, some type of puffer, a trigger etc.. i don't really mind buying fish that are a bit larger than average but buying huge 8-10" triggers/lionfish/puffers can be really expensive.
 
IMO, you're on the right track as far as the right fish to keep with the eel. My eel doesn't bother the GSP that he shares a tank with. My eel is very well fed though and I'm not sure what he would do if he got really hungry. I don't think the eel will view a larger fish as a meal. The problem you may have is that they may fight over food. I usually feed my eel with a stick first until he doesn't want anymore, then I feed the puffer...working out so far.
 
my caution here is based on the unpredictability of fish. I have an eel tank and I had a couple large fish in the tank as well. The two yellow head morays have now decided that NO fish are acceptable in the tank. The snowflake and jewel do not have issues with the fish. I had put a large tusk in there and things looked ok, the next morning, the tusk's finnage was shredded. He died a couple days later. I also tried a lunare wrasse, I was in the room to see the yellow come out from under the rocks and chase the lunare into a corner, needless to say the lunare now lives in a different tank and we no longer try new fish. As far as being fed well....they are fed what most people would consider to be too much.
 
I should have mentioned that my snowflake is still pretty small. Based on what Hara is saying, I imagine his disposition will change a bit as he grows.

BTW, when Hara talks about eels, I would say it's wise to listen because she knows what she's talking about :mrgreen: .
 
Wouldn't think the Snowflake would cause much concern as long as the fish are big enough.. they're mostly crab & shrimp...ivores.

I wish my mind wouldn't go blank while I'm typing..
 
Hara,
So what would you suggest? I would love to have a couple eels but I was under the impression that was generally not a good idea? I know that there is no real way to tell how my eel/fish will act until I actually introduce them together, but do your eels would even eat somthing such as a lionfish?

The eel was in a tank with a 12"+ volitan for about a week before the volitan sold, there is also a 8-10" sawtail tang in the tank that he hasn't messed with in about a week.
 
We just got in another black edge moray and now Hara has me intersted in this Eel tank idea :lol: What are the chances that the larger one 18-24" will eat the smaller one 12-14"?

Sorry for all the ?'s, I've been tring to read as much as possible on eels but I can't seem to find many people that have large eels.
 
It is in the differences in the morays...for instance, I acquired the jeweled moray because it had been housed in a LFS disply tank for 5 years...its tankmate, a green moray, decided, (after being with it in the same tank for 3 years) that it looked like dinner. I bought it for a mere 20.00 as it didnt look too good. A couple weeks in a hospital tank and he was fine. Later, the same green moray, ate the head off (literally) of a large snowflake that was in the tank. Alot of eels can cohabitate quite nicely without incident. Snowflakes, Chainlink and Zebras for instance are pretty docile. Greens and Tesselata's have no tolerance for anything.

My yellow head fimbriated's are a bit aggressive, but only towards things other than eels at this point.

They would eat a lion, small ones for sure but large ones would more likely be harassed to death. Smaller lions are eaten head first and so the spines do not affect the eel. My fimbriated ate a small fuzzy lion. At least I assume that is what happened after the lion disappeared and the eel went off his feed for a week. And later history showing his aggression confirmed my theory.

Eel tanks are cool, but the reason I added other fish was the fact that quite frankly, eels can be boring....once they settle into rocks, you rarely see any activity except at feeding time. I have compromised with interesting inverts such as stars, cucumbers and urchins to supplement the tank for activity.
 
Thanks so much Hara for your input. I do understand the point on the tank being a bit boring that's why I orignally wanted to add fish...

This eel was housed with 2 large fish but only for a week so I guess I'll have to play each addition case by case whether it's fish or eel and just hope he accepts the new tankmate 8O
 
I have a friend who kept a snowflake with a volitan, and what we call a strawberry grouper that I caught. His eel died when it escaped one day :cry: , but before that the tank was fine.
 
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