Snowflake eel tips

[begginersluck]

Just got myself my first eel.

I went with the snowflake and he's a juvenile and around 8 inches in length. He is currently is my QT with a couple of other fish (purple tang, copperband & orange spot goby). He's been in for around 30 minutes and hiding as expected, keeps popping his head out which is kinda cool.

So on to the serious stuff......

How easy are the to keep.... And when I say keep I mean INSIDE the aquarium lol. My QT in lidless however I plan on making something for it tomorrow.

The display tank has no lid either but is 30 inches tall. Does height of a tank matter or do these creatures find every spot in the tank whether it's up or down?

Would you recommend making some sort of lid and what would you recommend making it out of?

 

[melosu58]

You MUST have a lid. They are extreme escape artist. It has to be tight fitting or they will get out. I have had one in the past so I know what to expect.

 

[TheTodd]

Agreed.

I'm also wondering how long it will be before the Goby is a snack.

 

[ezy33]

I had one for several years in my 200 gallon. It has two 12" x 25" openings and he never escaped! Maybe I was lucky but when I kept snakes many years ago I found they need to push against something to gain leverage like a corner. If you have uncovered corners you will need some kind of a cover. I now use egg crate ( found in the lighting department at most hardware stores ) to cover the openings. They need to be fed by hand as they have poor eyesight and will eat anything it can fit into it's mouth. They may go two weeks without eating then pop out and eat like normal. To top it all off catching a large one in a big aquarium took me three tries! After all that I would still have one if I had a fish only tank!

 

[woody390]

Does the rock work all need to be very secure too?

 

[jeh1487]

Agree they are escape artist of the fish world. I would think that the rock formation needs to be secured, you can use rock putty it's cheap and fun to make cool stable rock formation. As far as the safety of the fish, they are fast and if the rock gave way the fish could swim out of trouble.

 

[Gregcoyote]

A very tight fitting lid, mine at 2' knocked the lid off the tank and I had a brick holding it down! They don't need anything to push against other than water to jump feet out of the tank. They are very strong, even little ones. Ditto on the near sighted comment. As a diver I use to hand feed them. Still have all my fingers. 4' Conger Moray shown (Hawaii)