Fire eel in a 125 with other fish?

[StripeGirl]

I had a fire eel in a 75 for 8 years he was right at 20 inches a 125 is fine dude no question!

Wrong!!!!

My fire eel is 40 plus inches and lives in a 450 gallon tank.He is almost 4 years old.
So your fire eel in a 75 was not even close to ok.Nice job stunting/torturing an eel.

 

[BASSTIAN182]

Wrong!!!!

My fire eel is 40 plus inches and lives in a 450 gallon tank.He is almost 4 years old.
So your fire eel in a 75 was not even close to ok.Nice job stunting/torturing an eel.

The eel was fine absolutely fine I handfed him bloodworms everyday and he was actually one of the more enjoyable fish to keep but to make a long story short I bought 2 5 inch Green severums and they gave all my fish the infamous white spot disease including my fire eel and after a week of treatment he didnt make it he didnt die because he was miserable or hated life or hated his massive cave in his 75 that was hands down the most active fish ive owned next to my arrowanas which are in my big show tank which im tempted to buy another Fire eel and put it into my show tank just to see how big it will get I understand your entitled to your opinion but so am I and ive said this ten times already but no fire eel is suffering in a 125 talk to the hundreds or thousands of people that have them in 55 gallon tanks or below because I ashore you there are ten times more people with Fire eels in 55 gallon or lower tanks then there are with people with 450 gallon tanks and 40 inch Fire eels and if there were so many of these 40 inch Fire eels out there I could buy one for my show tank but there arent because other then the 5 to 10 MFK members you have with them no person or Pet Store in N.C. would have a 40 inch Fire eel period!

 

[Loves severums]

The eel was fine absolutely fine I handfed him bloodworms everyday and he was actually one of the more enjoyable fish to keep but to make a long story short I bought 2 5 inch Green severums and they gave all my fish the infamous white spot disease including my fire eel and after a week of treatment he didnt make it he didnt die because he was miserable or hated life or hated his massive cave in his 75 that was hands down the most active fish ive owned next to my arrowanas which are in my big show tank which im tempted to buy another Fire eel and put it into my show tank just to see how big it will get I understand your entitled to your opinion but so am I and ive said this ten times already but no fire eel is suffering in a 125 talk to the hundreds or thousands of people that have them in 55 gallon tanks or below because I ashore you there are ten times more people with Fire eels in 55 gallon or lower tanks then there are with people with 450 gallon tanks and 40 inch Fire eels and if there were so many of these 40 inch Fire eels out there I could buy one for my show tank but there arent because other then the 5 to 10 MFK members you have with them no person or Pet Store in N.C. would have a 40 inch Fire eel period!

^

 

[ElectricBlueSeanBurch]

As peacockmadness said, I own a fire eel and I house him in my 220. (6x2x2.5) he is a little over 12", and ive had him around a month. I dont think one could be housed in a 125 for life. Even if the tank has no decor, and the eel is the sole inhabitant, the footprint will not be appropriate. People justify smaller footprints by talking about how flexible they are, I say just because a contortionist can fit in a suitcase doesnt meant they are happy being contained in one. However I think that the eel would be more than happy in the 125 until 18"-20" in size. I have wanted one of these amazing fish for a long time. But until I upgraded to atleast a 6x2 footprint I wouldn't have even thought of housing one of them long term.

 

[ScatMan]

I like the Asian swamp eels, but it looks like they get the same size as the fire, so wouldn't the same logic apply? I am going to go look into to sirens now..

Wow he is pretty!! I do like the Asian swamp eel, but he gets up to 3 foot, and since that is why a fire eel wouldn't do well in my tank, wouldn't that mean neither would the Asian?

they can get that long but would still do very well in a 125 for 4 reasons:
1) the have less mass than a fire eel.
2) their nature is very different from an active fire eel, they're used to mud puddles or rice paddies and are not as active. they don't require as much "moving around" space, so a clear roomy aquarium is probably a treat.
3) they're really tough and will even thrive in worse conditions, although i'm not recommending worse conditions.
4) they've been successfully raised to adult size in even smaller aquariums.

also, keep in mind that the species is very variable and some individuals will max out at 18" while others will reach 3'+

that's beautiful! where did you get it and how much do they run, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Blue2Fyre]

Thanks! He's the coolest fish I've ever had.

I got him from Dave's rare fish, cost me $59.

Since then Atlantis has had them for $29, but I didn't have to pay shipping so it works out. You just have to wait for them to pop up on the list

 

[ScatMan]

The eel was fine absolutely fine I handfed him bloodworms everyday and he was actually one of the more enjoyable fish to keep but to make a long story short I bought 2 5 inch Green severums and they gave all my fish the infamous white spot disease including my fire eel and after a week of treatment he didnt make it he didnt die because he was miserable or hated life or hated his massive cave in his 75 that was hands down the most active fish ive owned next to my arrowanas which are in my big show tank which im tempted to buy another Fire eel and put it into my show tank just to see how big it will get I understand your entitled to your opinion but so am I and ive said this ten times already but no fire eel is suffering in a 125 talk to the hundreds or thousands of people that have them in 55 gallon tanks or below because I ashore you there are ten times more people with Fire eels in 55 gallon or lower tanks then there are with people with 450 gallon tanks and 40 inch Fire eels and if there were so many of these 40 inch Fire eels out there I could buy one for my show tank but there arent because other then the 5 to 10 MFK members you have with them no person or Pet Store in N.C. would have a 40 inch Fire eel period!

your entitled to your opinion, that's correct. but your opinion is in the minority. you said yourself that it

was hands down the most active fish ive owned next to my arrowanas

so why would you want to cram such an active fish in such a small tank? would you recommend keeping an arowana in a 125? would you keep your arowana in a 125?

just because people keep their eels in worse conditions than you does not mean that your conditions are good or to be ignored. that's on par with saying "don't yell at me for beating my dog with a stick, yell at my neighbor because he beats his dog with a baseball bat!". and no, i'm not saying that keeping a fire eel in a 125 is the same as beating a dog with a stick.

there aren't many 40" eels out there and nobody said that there were. that's because they don't often import the big ones and the few people that take care of them correctly and grow them up to that size don't regularly want to part with them.

 

[MonsterMinis]

Black Leopard eel's ( M. Dayii) are fairly new and becomeing increasingly easy to find as well. Sorry the pictures so blurry but I'm not a photographer these guys get approx 18" full grown and have similar personalities to fire eels. I took this picture while he/she was begging for food.

 

[pocel]

i dont see why your giving him so much of a hard time....the post of a guy having the six foot electric eel in a what 220 was sickening imo but there were so many people saying how great it was there is alot of hypocricy on here...

I myself however would grow the eel out before putting a 4to six inch fish in a tank that big then grow it more then upgrade the tank..

 

[ScatMan]

i dont see why your giving him so much of a hard time....the post of a guy having the six foot electric eel in a what 220 was sickening imo but there were so many people saying how great it was there is alot of hypocricy on here...

I myself however would grow the eel out before putting a 4to six inch fish in a tank that big then grow it more then upgrade the tank..

who's a hypocrite??? don't just make a blanket statement about us all being hypocrites, tell us who they are and maybe give them a chance to defend themselves.

i know you can't be referring to me because i never even saw the thread you're talking about.

i have no personal experience with electric eels but i do know that they can get up to 6 feet long and are relatively inactive. seeing as how that person grew their eel to it's full size (6 feet) and kept it healthy, i would say that they did a good job and that the 220g was adequate.

there is no "size of fish" to "size of tank" formula. each species has their own special needs and, of course, there will be a varying degree of opinions as to what those needs are.

i'm not trying to give anybody a hard time, i just want op to have the best information available to him/her so that they can make their own educated decision.

as for growing the fire eel out in a smaller aquarium; i don't think that's a bad idea at all! BUT, people should be aware of their growth rate and how quickly they will need a new LARGE tank to accommodate the fire eel's active nature, girth and long body.