EEL Question

[Richard]

I'm thinking of adding an eel to my tank. A snowflake eel. My question is, will it eat my cleaner shrimp who is on the small side. The eel will be small as well. Don't know much about eels any help would be appreciated, feeding, etc...

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Hara]

most likely......I had a small eel that left all the peppermint shrimp
alone, but I think it was a fluke.


The bad points of an eel: as they get bigger, they will rearrange your liverock
periodically..dig big pits in the sandbed, knock over corals that arent secured well.
They eat a good bit of food, so your bioload will increase and you have to make sure you dont buy small fish.

The good points, which to me outweigh the bad....they are just darn cool.

I feed mine shrimp, silversides, lancefish

 

[stresco]

I have a pretty nice sized eel in my tank, and like Hara said, "The good points, which to me outweigh the bad....they are just darn cool. " He likes to rearange my tank daily. I cant put anything where i want it, guess he is into Fung Shui. As a rule of thumb, if the eel can get a fish into his mouth, he WILL eat it. They are just like snakes, they can open their mouths to twice the size of their bodies. I made the mistake of bringing home 2 Coral Beauties, about 3" in size. I brought 1 of them back to the fish store, my eel had an expensive meal that day. Other than that, i feed him fresh shrimp, scalops, squid, smelt, and clams.