New Fire Eel Being Harassed

[Fish Tank Travis]

Well, as some of you may know from my other threads, I have been quarantining a new fire eel with fantastic color. I moved him to my big tank yesterday and rearranged the pvc pipe hideouts in the aquarium, and all went really well. However, I watched them for a while tonight and the bigger of my original fire eels is definitely searching the tank to seek out the new guy and harassing him. No, visible damage is happening to the new guy, but I'm sure he's being stressed out. My other original fire eel is not seeking him out or making any effort to get to him, but if the new guy gets close enough then he will take a nip towards him.

Some details about these guys. The new fire eel is 8-9" long with decent body size, but probably not anything above average. My original two are about 14" long. The smaller one looks pretty average in body size, but the larger one is probably the thickest 14" fire eel on the planet. The larger one is the one causing the trouble.

So, what can I do here? Any suggestions?

I should be clear about my tanks as well. Besides my big tank, where they all are at right now, I have a 29 gallon quarantine tank and a ten gallon glofish tank for my son. So, growing him out in another tank isn't really an option because there is no way my wife will allow another tank into this house.

Any help you can offer would be great. Thanks for the help!

 

[FriedFlowerHornFillet]

Yeah I've always felt it best to ask for forgiveness than permission when it comes to fish tanks. Tell her you got a great deal on it. How big is your tank?

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Yeah I've always felt it best to ask for forgiveness than permission when it comes to fish tanks. Tell her you got a great deal on it. How big is your tank?

The tank is a 220, which won't house all three of them for life but I was really hoping to have more time to grow them out and either talk my wife into a bigger or more aquariums, or at least be able to get a good idea of which one I want to keep.

 

[thefredpit]

it may just be them establishing a pecking order you might get a couple pipes that only he is small enough to get into so he can get out of reach and then see if things settle down in a couple days

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

it may just be them establishing a pecking order you might get a couple pipes that only he is small enough to get into so he can get out of reach and then see if things settle down in a couple days

I think I'll try to do that. I have some 1" pvc in the garage that I can cut a piece off of and that should work.

 

[thefredpit]

put a couple around the tank so he has a place to hide no matter where he is

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Well, things appear to have settled down. The new little guy is still a bit timid but I've seen them all near each other without any aggression. I'm still keeping a close eye on it.

 

[thefredpit]

awesome did you add the small pipes?

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

awesome did you add the small pipes?

I actually didn't. When I went home the other night everyone seemed to be settled down pretty well. I held off on the small pipes because my goal is to eventually get the pipes out, not add more. Lol. I kept a close eye on them and all has been well so far.