Polyuranadon Thread
- Thread starter ShadowStryder
- Start date
I'm still figuring out how I'm going to secure it against escape, but I intend to have a full cover, ideally with some sort of latch mechanism. I'll have to figure out some sort of grate setup to keep it out of the power filter, but that's the biggest piece of DIY I'm expecting for this project.
Right now I'm working on refurbishing my dad's 29 gallon tank, this will be my next project, probably in the fall.
I made my own cover from two thick pieces of triplex wood fused into one, it's heavy enough to prevent eels from knocking it over. I also drill nine x 2 mini-holes parallel in the middle (very small holes, about two milimeters each), this will allow some circulation but still not big enough for escaping. No latch mechanism needed. I also in the habit of not filling my water to the top of aquarium, only 60-70%, so the eels cannot use dolphin method to bump into the cover. (To be fair, my eels are not the escaper type, echidna rhodochilus generally stay calm inside their homes and only come out when smelling food. G. Polyuranodon, on the other hand, still attempt to jump out of the water every now and then, out of habit, but not to the point of obsession.
So I've gotten a great deal on a 90 gallon reef ready tank, ($200.00 for a lightly used tank+stand), meaning I'm going with my original plan of using a sump after all, meaning there's not going to be any openings in the display tank besides the feeding door; I'll be using a fitted mesh top for the tank.
An update on my tank progress.
The 90 gallon didn't work out, but tomorrow I'm going to get (knock on wood) a 48"x24"x24" 105 Oceanic setup (tank, sump, light, stand, and plumbing) that was listed for fairly cheap. I've been thinking about stocking options, which is challenging since I'm planning for a biotope, and it seems like there's a commercially available species of nerite snail that occupies a similar natural range to G. Polyuranodon. Since there's going to be live plants in there it would be nice to have something that would help keep detritus and algae under control.
Having some of these guys in the tank would be a big help for cleaning out hard to reach places, which there will be a number of seeing as I'm going to be stacking and epoxying river rocks together to create some interstitial space for the eel to hide in (based on a paper I read it seems to prefer hiding under boulders in the wild), but I'm wondering if the eel will eat them; it's natural prey was hypothesized to be small cling gobies and invertebrates, which would potentially include snails. Anyone ever had them in a tank containing snails with one of these guys, because my own searches haven't turned anything up that's specific to this species.
The 90 gallon didn't work out, but tomorrow I'm going to get (knock on wood) a 48"x24"x24" 105 Oceanic setup (tank, sump, light, stand, and plumbing) that was listed for fairly cheap. I've been thinking about stocking options, which is challenging since I'm planning for a biotope, and it seems like there's a commercially available species of nerite snail that occupies a similar natural range to G. Polyuranodon. Since there's going to be live plants in there it would be nice to have something that would help keep detritus and algae under control.
Having some of these guys in the tank would be a big help for cleaning out hard to reach places, which there will be a number of seeing as I'm going to be stacking and epoxying river rocks together to create some interstitial space for the eel to hide in (based on a paper I read it seems to prefer hiding under boulders in the wild), but I'm wondering if the eel will eat them; it's natural prey was hypothesized to be small cling gobies and invertebrates, which would potentially include snails. Anyone ever had them in a tank containing snails with one of these guys, because my own searches haven't turned anything up that's specific to this species.
G. Polyuranodon are piscivores if we look at the dentition, unlike its fellow FW morays E. Rhodochilus which has conical dentition, more suitable to eat crustaceans and molluscs. So by theory, your snails should be safe from the G. Polyuranodon; but then again, we can never trust an eel 100%
I saw a Polyuranodon for sale at my LFS the other day. Sadly I’m nowhere near ready to house it, but it was cool to see in person. It was maybe 8” long and they had it eating thawed food off of tongs. The only issue was that they were asking for $500.00 for it, but tbh having it already eating and accepting frozen food almost justified that price.
Whoa.. that's expensive. But yes maybe we should respect their efforts to train the eel to eat frozen foods. Is it possible to negotiate the price?
$500 is super expensive. My LFS, which typically has pretty high prices, gets them in from time to time at $120. No way would I ever pay $500 for one.
