electric eel tankmates?
- Thread starter amp7594
- Start date
This is an interesting topic indeed. When I first bought my electric eel at 15" I kept him with a 12" common pleco. Once he was past the 21" mark though the pleco became to swim fast and go crazy bumping into the filter intake etc... so I moved him. I believe the pleco could not take the shock from the electic eel. Keep in mind though the tank was bare and my electric eel "liked" my pleco as he would go against the pleco and they would sleep side-by-side. I have seen at the aquarium an electric eel be with all kinds of fish, some are smalller, that tank though is 400g+ and there is lots of hiding places as they try to re-create the tank to make it look "wild". I would think that if you had large fish that were to big to feel the shock then It would be okay.
I totally disagree about the Electric Eel and Electric Catfish as tankmates.
Only tankmates maybe driftwood and some rocks.
I'm afraid that keeping Electric Eels and Electric Cats together doesn't make any sense at all.
I owned both of these fish in the past...not kept together...and observing other fish with them made it pretty clear that even if tankmates are able to survive, they are suffering extreme discomfort on an ongoing basis. The "navigational" pulses used by the eel while simply moving about would keep the other fish highly stressed. When the eel actually fired a "predatory" jolt while feeding, the intended target was not the only one to feel the shock; others nearby were killed or stunned as well. It was obviously a cruel environment and I ended that experiment very quickly and abruptly.
I notice that the original poster hasn't been seen since 2012; feeding accident with his eel, perhaps?
I owned both of these fish in the past...not kept together...and observing other fish with them made it pretty clear that even if tankmates are able to survive, they are suffering extreme discomfort on an ongoing basis. The "navigational" pulses used by the eel while simply moving about would keep the other fish highly stressed. When the eel actually fired a "predatory" jolt while feeding, the intended target was not the only one to feel the shock; others nearby were killed or stunned as well. It was obviously a cruel environment and I ended that experiment very quickly and abruptly.
I notice that the original poster hasn't been seen since 2012; feeding accident with his eel, perhaps?
Side note. It's not the amount of volts that kills it's the amount of amps that will. If the eel or cat get startled they will immediately start releasing electrical discharges into the water, in the wild fish can avoid being shocked to death provided they are far enough away, but in a glass box there is no where to run to. If one animal starts shocking the water the other will respond in the same way and more then likely they would kill each other. Also these animals cannot fully control the electricity they release. These eels are even know to accidently kill themselves with the amount of electricity they release, just because you can use electricity to catch food doesn't mean that it doesn't affect you too.
The only problem with that would be that these eels can even kill cattle, horses and humans with the amount of amps they release. Not trying to be mean but good luck finding a tank big enough to house a fish big enough to withstand the eel. The only animals I ever see being kept with electric eels are other electric eels. Lol just think of it tho atleast you won't need a generator to power everything in your fish room, just use the fish as the power source.