[Reeftanker3295]

Hi! Decided my eel was outgrowing his small 3 gallon tank so i went out and bought a 10 gallon for him. This tank is saltwater and has about 3-4 pounds of LR so in a week or so i am ordering a 6500k bulb and fixture along with chaeto, caulerpa and then maybe buying some mangrove shoots. This tank may later have more baby eels or other things but for now it has: 1 starfish (unknown name, caught locally), and 1 american eel about 4 inches long. Here are some pictures of the new tank!
FTS from one side

The Featherduster

The Starfish, can anyone give me a positive ID?

FTS from back side (The tank is on a counter so both sides can be seen)

 

[fuzzybob4]

nice tank
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[Reeftanker3295]

Big update

Alright, this tank has changed alot and is moving into a larger, 25 gallon tank.
Stock list:
About 6 species of seaweed
American eel - Grew very fast once moved into this tank, has grown about 2 inches in the past couple of weeks
Juvenile Northern Kingfish - Eats like a horse, changes colors, a hole that was once on his side has totally healed up. Named Burger King because hes a kingfish and has a ravenous apetite :lol:
2 Hermit crabs - Do a great job cleaning up left over food since they are meat eaters and also filter sand pretty well
Lots of mussels that grow extremely fast.
Here are the updated pictures before i upgrade:
FTS (sorry for the bananas in the back, this tanks temporarily in the kitchen, :lol: )

My little guy, The Infamous Burger King, this is what he looks like in the dark, he will develop this color in the light too once he grows up.

Some species of seaweed/macro algaes i collected today

This one collected today too, has an awsome white coloring to it, never saw this before. Its not just bleached its actually white.

These are my snails eggs, dont know what kind of snails they are but one that i collected must of been pregnant, saw her laying these and she guards them all day

Left side

My baby eel, him and the fish get along surprisingly and eat together

 

[Reeftanker3295]

Continued

Baby Starfish, you can see the adult in the left side shot

Right side

This is what Burger King looks like in the day ( He does have a full tail, its just that the back section is transparent)

 

[quader94]

nice progress so far

 

[Reeftanker3295]

Thanks Tim! Burger King's a crazy little fish, he grabs the eels pellet food as its sinking and today when i put a pretty large crustacean in the tank (same kind of animal as the shell the white algae is on) And he immediately flipped it over and ripped it out of its shell then swam around with it in his mouth (it was the size of him easily) and ate half of it then gave the rest to the hermit crabs and eel haha

 

[quader94]

good thing your putting burger king in the 25, seems like hes going to get pretty big eating like that.

i like the eel pic too, i love eels just would hate to see it escape and dont have a big enough tank for one

 

[Reeftanker3295]

Yea northern kingfish grow EXTREMELY fast, they only live for a couple years and within the first year of their life they can grow like 10 inches.

 

[Reeftanker3295]

Now, let me finally see one of your builds Tim! Finish up your frag tank so i can see it!

 

[quader94]

what are you going to from a year from now

 

[quader94]

Now, let me finally see one of your builds Tim! Finish up your frag tank so i can see it!

its up and running with frags, ive just been lazy to get pics lol

 

[Reeftanker3295]

:lol: Well of course the tank will stunt his growth and ill be turning this tank into the 55 gallon eventually, its very cheap, just need sand, and then collect stuff, its fun.

 

[quader94]

i bet it is, you and cuddlefish got some pretty cool native tanks

 

[Reeftanker3295]

Its just awsome to see how much different it is here. I never really studied it because it looked so boring from the green crap water around here but it really is awsome, the fish are alot more active here, i guess due to water temperatures and having to warm their bodies, and everythings pretty cool. Im happy that the fish are so easy to keep too, they eat anything.

 

[aquawolf]

This is turning out to be a cool little experiment for you with the local species. Things are looking good so far. Keep us posted on the progress.

 

[Reeftanker3295]

Will do . I think maybe this christmas ill get a big tank for all this stuff. Regular rock will do the same thing as live rock, correct? Im thinking of just getting lots of small pieces of rock from the sound or the ocean and using them for a big tank. Because they are small i will be able to get alot of surface area from a bunch of small rocks for bacteria colonization and it wont weigh as much, and since i will gather them from the ocean they will be already cured, sound like a good idea?

 

[Reeftanker3295]

O and if any of you are wondering what the starfish eat, look closely at the barnacles... You'll notice they are not in their shell anymore, the starfish suck them all out and i throw a big chunk in there once a while haha

 

[Reeftanker3295]

Stupid SOB crab! That same stupid crab that i took out of my biocube and put in my 10 gallon is on the kill again! I came downstairs to reset the internet and saw that my white macro is on the ground, torn in half, then i see the stinkin crab on a rock, eating it!!! What crab eats corals and macros instead of regular food?! GRRR. Hes banished to my HOB filter along with that unknown snail, ill choose what to do with him tomorrow morning...

 

[Blurple90]

How big will the American eel get? Are they a smaller species? Any problems between him and the other livestock? Ive been wanting an eel but dont have the room for another large tank.

 

[Reeftanker3295]

Blurple, He will eventually get much larger, but they live for a pretty long time, and can get close to 20 years old. They get probably 3-5 feet in length but ive had mine for a year now and hes only grown a couple of inches. No problems with him and the fish or any other critters in the tank. I caught mine myself though, they arent usually sold unless being used as bait haha. They are fairly easy to maintain, they eat anything, smell food the second it hits the water and finish all their food. Mine only comes out at night and occasionally during the afternoon and morning now that it has rocks and sand to hide in but he's cool to have. If you want one that you will always see get one and then put it in a tank with only a couple small rocks and a shallow sand bed.. Like 1 inch or less or else he will hide under the sand all day. Keep in mind you also dont need to keep them in saltwater. These eels migrate up saltwater rivers into freshwater as adults and stay there for their whole life. I catch them about 3 feet long in my stream in my backyard, probably 100s of miles from the ocean traveling through rivers. I had mine in freshwater until i decided to make a refugium and knew he'd like it so i acclimated him over 3-4 hours to saltwater and hes doing great.