Mooray eel w/ brackish fish...

[landmineyouth]

Hey guys. I have always been intrigued by the "freshwater" mooray eel, which in reality (as im seeing in a ton of posts under this subforum today lol) is a brackish to full marine eel... Is it possible for me to keep him with these fish...

4" Archer
5 3" Mono's
3" Scat
2" Figure 8 Puffer
4" Columbian Shark


or would it pose a risk that he may consume them?? Let me know, thanks guys, i think he'd make a great adition.

[davo]

some morays get pretty big, and being carnivores i dont see why they wouldn't eat some of those fish, and it may not be a good thing if it eats a puffer. do you have the fish you've already mentioned, id like to see them if poss.

[landmineyouth]

Yes i do..... a few are in my personal gallery.. if you want more instant message me.

[Fabio's Dad]

What kind of Moray is it?

[Tanyoberu]

You mentioned the "FW moray eel" and the list of fish that you listed will be great with them. I have similar fish with my eels and there are no issues with the eels. It's actually fun to have them with my scats, datnoids and sharks.

The only worries you'll may face is feeding the eels over the other fish. I have three and one of them prefer to eat pellets with the other fish and so he's no problem. The other two like meaty foods primarily and will starve until I put those types of foods in the tank. The problem is that the scats and the sharks will usually get to the other foods before your eels can (though my eels learned to grab the food right out of their mouths). I found a solution in the form of my vacuum tube. I put their foods in that tube and I drop their food in. They will swim in and snatch their food right out of your hand. Be careful not to let them bite you.

The other thing is their diet. They love shelled fish. So krill and that sort of foods are good. And like snakes they can take down a LARGE goldfish on occasion, but I don't like goldfish for feeders. Their favorite (or my favorite to watch) is when they take down a crayfish. They'll grab and hold the critter and will turn their bodies into a knot and will pull their face and their victim through the hole, breaking the crayfish apart. The rest is a crunch fest of peices. They also do a lovely "death" roll on larger fish.

But again, your fish are safe. They do not bother fish they cannot swallow, and they learn their tank mates quickly. I once had puffers in the tank with them and because they were bite size (I didn't know their maximum size eating fish at that point) they were taste tested and quickly released. After that, they were never bothered again.

They are smart buggars too and I think they will be a nice mix with your fish. I keep my salinity on the high end of the brackish scale at about 1.016 - 1.020. I think all of your fish will appreciate that salinity.

Oh and while I have had some serious diseases infiltrate my tank, my eels never seemed to be affected.

Bah, I can go on and on, but your fish are safe. Enjoy them.

[Tanyoberu]

I read your list of fish again and I just want to warn you, that your puffers WILL be taste tested. But apparently they don't taste good and the eels will not bother them after that. If you were to buy an eel, make sure you buy the smaller one because they have a nasty set of teeth and even though they will not eat your puffer you don't want permanent damage to occure from the taste that could happen from a much larger eel.

I would even suggest you try to acclimate your eel to eating pellets. The one that does eat pellets was purchased when he was small, about the diameter of a pencil. I found that Hikari's sinking carnivor pellets work the best. Let them sink to the ground and take a spoon or stick of some sort and swirl the pellets around in front of the eel when it comes to smell the pellets. He will bite at the moving pellets and hopefully will learn to sniff them out and devour them the next time. Try it in a tank where there will be no competition.

That eel will eat his fill of pellets and will not bother any other fish in the aquarium, not even if it's a tasty fish.

[rottbo]

snowflake moray would be your best non-aggressive choice IMO they are the least aggressive of the morays but theuy like higher salt levels as they get older

[landmineyouth]

Tanyoberu, thanks so much im taking all this advice into serious consideration.

Rottbo, can you link me to a general knowledge page w/ pics to the snowflake moray? I think ive seen them before but only as full marine eels, and want to make sure we're thinkin of the same thing..

[Tanyoberu]

I'm not Rottbo, but here are some links to the snowflake eel. This is not the FW moray eel that is commonly sold in the pet store, but it is also a nice fish if you plan on keeping your salinity HIGH!

http://www.vividaquariums.com/10Expand.asp?ProductCode=01-2311-S
http://wetwebmedia.com/snoflkeelfaqs.htm
vs this fish
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fwmorayfaqs.htm

But now I need to go and buy that snowflake! I like the looks. And I just saw the zebra moray that looks beautiful. I sense I shall own an eel tank soon.

[rottbo]

snowflake are sold as fresh water they just need acclimated to salt to live a full life

[Tanyoberu]

Are you referring to this fish Rottbo?

http://wetwebmedia.com/snowflakemoray.htm as being sold as the FW Moray?

If that were the case, I would not be surprised. My LFS guy sells plenty of fish and he'd declare one species wouldn't need salt while others were full blown SW species and would be completely wrong. (poor Xenopterus naritus, bronze puffer)

Just make sure you know which species you are looking to buy for your tank. But like stated, either of these species (provided the salinity is right) will be decent fish for your tank... minus the taste test.

[Fabio's Dad]

I bought my snowflake eel as a 'freshwater' eel and slowly acclimated him to salt. He's doing great. I feed him raw grocery store shrimp and he's going through a gowth spurt. His name is Carl. I can't help it; I name them all. :)