Eel Question?

[Harpo]

If I convert my tank to a bare bottom system, with no shrimp, or crabs, would it be safe to keep a snowflake and chainlink eel?
The snowflake is about two feet long and the chainlink, about 16 inches. With no sand to dig in, is there any other down sides to look at?

Bill

[Geoff]

you get around the eel problem by using PVC pipe. they are more than happy to hide in PVC pipes if sand is not available.

G~

[mjsandbe]

What exactly are you asking? Are you asking if they would do well together? If they would do well in a bare bottom tank?


I have had a snowflake eel in my 90 gallon reef tank for over a year now. It is roughly 15-18 inches and seems to grow more in girth than length. It was about 10-12 inches when I bought it. The eel will be leaving the tank as soon as I find it a home and a way to get it out with out distroying the tank.

[Harpo]

No, I've had these eels for some time. What I want to do is convert my 240 gal. FO tank to a bare bottom reef. I did not want to lose my eels or triggers, so I thought maybe if I got rid of my shrimp, I could safely keep them in the reef. One of the biggest problems with these two in a reef would be digging, and toppling rocks. If they have nothing to dig in, maybe there would be no problem. That's where I was comming from, any thoughts?

Bill

[Desolas]

If your structure is sound and your corals are all glued down you should be okay as far as toppling goes. I would put a lot of large rubble that forms caves near the bottom and they should be happy.

If you have any brittle staghorn like corals (montipora digitata for instance) you will have occasional breakage when the eels swim into and through the coral.

As long as they have ample room to hide in the rocks it should be fine, you'll know pretty quickly as they will do a lot of moving around when they aren't happy with where they are. I've always kept eels, mainly snowflakes, in tanks with less than 1" of substrate so they can't dig and blow it everywhere. I just substitute sand/gravel with good rock cover for them to hide in.