Just bought my first fire eel, actually my first eel period. Any helpful tips or hints would be appericated thanks
fire eel
- Thread starter dstone
- Start date
that tank will be fine. Make sure the lid is tight and free of holes. They can be hard to get to eat which is why most people lose them. Ive had a few and bloodworms work best. Dont keep them with anything too aggressive as they have no way to protect themselves
If you've ever seen a full grown fire eel in person, you'd very quickly realize a 150 is not big enough.
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I disagree, there are plenty of vids out there of large eels in small tank a 150 i decent size for a long time. Ive had mine 3 years and has grown from 3 inches to 12 inches. However he has found a recent home in my 240 with my clowns for life. More important then a tight lid as at no point have i had one on. Is having mesh over you OUT out for you canister filter, also a sutible substrate and some places to hid hell be happy, youll be happy hand feeding him also.
^ like AM said, they can escape really easily. They are very smart and like a little salt in the water. It may only eat live food depending on where you got it from. Who will be its tankmates?
mine has grown from 7" to 18" in less than a year. And I STRONGLY disagree with the notion that a lid is not needed for fire eels. Mine is in a 220 and I can already see him slowly outgrowing my tank. I figure I have at most 2 years until I need to upgrade. Look at msmasspoly's beastly eels and decide for yourself if a 150 is big enough!
Got my first one at 5" or so and it refused to eat....died. Got a second one and it also refused to eat for almost 2 weeks...now there's no stopping it. It can easily eat a dozen big night crawlers per feeding or several large raw jumbo shrimp that have been cut up. It'll actually pop it's head out of the water to get food if I let it. I'm not aware of it ever trying to escape, but lots of stories about it. Don't keep things in the tank that he can get cut or scraped on...wounds = infection = death. It's at least 20" long and lives in a 3" PVC pipe (which I need to upgrade soon).
I have 3 in my 500, all three have their own log to hide in, log is only 8" long, my biggest is 24" and the other 2 are 18". They dont leave them logs unless it feeding time, they eat shrimp and crawlers, they even steal it away from other fish so mine arent shy at all. Someone had a huge fire on eel that beat up his big tig not long ago. I think he sold the eel. I have had eels escape but not all, just depends on the eel itself, how comfortable he is, etc. My eels even share their log with a 9" clown loach and 6" bumblebee cat. I used to hand feed them but the tank is to big for me to reach them.