Gymnothorax tile behaviour?

albinomoray

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 18, 2006
68
0
0
MD
I just purchased a G. tile witin the past 2 weeks and was wondering if anyone has experience with types of behaviour. So far mine stays hidden and when I do catch him out when I come home from work or in the middle of the night he swims around in a fury trying to hide. Do they become more relaxed over time and venture out more? I had one die on me before but the tank he was in was way too small and he did not eat. I am sort of concerned about this guy as some morays when moved go on hunger strikes. It is hard to monitor his eating because he tends to only come out in the dark. I keep guppies and ghost shrimp in my tank. I kind of want this tank to be live food with the exception of my scat that loves kelp pellets. The LFS I got the tile from said he was eating pieces of shrimp and they had him for quite a while. When I 1st saw him I did not have a large enough tank to get him but I also recently got one just a week before aquiring him. Does anyone have any experience with this species to let me know what to expect or look out for?
 

xstar

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 28, 2006
124
0
0
east tennessee
AKA (freshwater) Morayeel is not freshwater at all. Should be a high brackish to full salt to live a love heathy life. Will not live long in freshwater. There is some exp. but most likely just luck and the eel is not heathy.
Gets large 2'+ so will need a nice size tank that is well coverd. If useing HOB filters,will need to run water low to keep a space so the eel wont be able to swim up and in the filter
http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/aquaria/brackfaqpart4.html
Warning! Thomas Flörkemeier (e-mail: floerki@yahoo.de) reports that, in his experience at least one moray eel, Gymnothorax tile, is so intolerant of copper-based medications that they are killed by doses that are routinely used to treat aquarium fishes. Aquarists keeping freshwater morays should consider this when using many of the commercial medications and act accordingly.

Warning! Moray eels have sharp teeth and a strong bite; while not aggressive, they should be treated with respect.

Although traded as freshwater fishes, these fishes really need moderately brackish water to do well, and most probably prefer salinities approach normal seawater. As such, they may mix well with scats, monos, and other large, brackish water fish. Usually they ignore their tankmates, but some specimens do become aggressively predatory. The safest approach is to keep a small group of these eels by themselves in a single-species aquarium. A lair of some sort is essential, such as a flowerpot or cave built from rocks. Providing they have adequate space, morays are very tolerant of one another and in fact seem to be happier in small groups and will spend more time on view instead of hiding.

Morays often need to be trained to accept dead food. One way is to attach food items to cotton thread and dangle this in front of the eel, rather as if you were fishing with rod and line. Prawns, fish, squid, and mussels all make suitable foods. Move the bait about a bit, and the moray will generally catch on. If the moray refuses dead food for a while, earthworms and river shrimps make good treats, and in the case of Echidna rhodochilus, can be used as a staple without problems. Bear in mind that morays are largely nocturnal and hunt by smell rather than sight, so the evening is likely to be the best time to feed them.
Gymnothorax tile is another species seen in home aquaria. It is pinkish-grey in colour and covered in many tiny cream spots. The biology of this species is not fully understood but it is believed to be anadromous, meaning that it inhabits brackish and marine waters as an adult but breeds in brackish or fresh water. It is a large fish, potentially reaching 60 cm (24 inches) in length.
 

albinomoray

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 18, 2006
68
0
0
MD
Recently I have not been able to find mine. I do not know if they hide under gravel but I have picked up everything large enough to hide under. I was not able to se inside the top level of my tree root ornament. It seems unlikely but possible he could be inside. There is already another eel and sometimes my toad fish goes in too. I did not want to risk getting stung or bitten so I only just lifted the tree root.
 

zdoo2

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 9, 2007
122
0
0
Onatrio
they are actually poisonous too, mild toxins are released in their mouth and effects vary, some repeorted extensive bleeding while others swelling, etc.

also, a deep wound can get infected with a seriuous bacterial disease that is found in all saltwater (maybe brackish too) that decays flesh and i just say a show on discovery channel of a guy who got a deep gash from a stingray and lost his leg from the infection
 

RayKeeper17

Feeder Fish
Oct 28, 2007
3
0
0
wisconsin
If your eels not eating try frozen mysis cubes, mines eats about 2 and hes only 13 inches or so, also he would need to be in heavy bracksih to full saltwater (i recomend salt mine was in bracksih and he was ok but hes doing alot better in full salt)
 

knifefishking

Feeder Fish
Jun 3, 2010
3
0
0
ohio
i am thinking about gitting a Gymnothorax tile i am an experienced fish keeper and i have a 60 gallon tank i would like to no the salinity needed plz help:D
 

kamikaziechameleon

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Sep 23, 2010
2,339
4
68
western hemisphere
I've got a G. Tile in a 110 Gallon for over 3 years, uncovered and a over the back filter at water level in addition to the canister. The key to keeping your eel eating and happy is adequet cover, a warm temp mine likes 80-82 or else he won't eat And don't forget to turn the ligths off at night to let him explore the tank a little. In a tank of sufficient size and adequet temp eels and rope fish won't jump. They flee when they are unhappy. I've kept ropes and eels, G. Tile and spiney and only one ever jumped ship, a rope escaping a beserker heater that put the tank up to 110. G. Tile is a very teritorial fish and if you don't give it space they can get quite tenatious. I have mine with large africans, a horei, and some peacocks/haps. At one point he had taken the whole lower half of the tank to himself driving out the tropheous dubosii of the time and the horei. If your eel won't eat I recommend warming the tank up to 84 to 85 then dropping it down to 80-82 and adding fresh water salt to the tank in large doses. When mine stopped eating a year or so ago I read about this and preformed it to great effect. Mine has been in pure fresh for a solid 3 years, longer than anyone else I've ever met. I understand the eels biggest issue is its weak immune system so quarenteen any tank mates, even feeders for a month. I feed mine chiclid sinker pellets, frozen cocktail shrimp, and raw shrimp pinched into bite sized chunks, or any kind of frozen fish, he likes smoke salmon, or raw catfish. I anticipate the day I have a 200 gallon plus tank with more G. Tiles in it.

This fish is very smart and can be trained. I got mine for a while to meet me in the upper corner of the tank by the filter to take shrimp out of my hand. I had a failure once in that he did bite me (they are practically blind) and in stung for quite a while, similar feeling to a catfish barb to the digits.

While I say they will do fine in fresh it requires a host of practices, extremely clean water being the most taxing one.(remember weak immune system) But to my eels credit he's made it past quite a few tank disasters, short term fluctuations mine takes in stride but long term trends like a tank being 2 degrees cooler than desired can cause hunger strikes. Good luck and email me with further questions.

forgive the typos, speed typing at work.
 
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