Oh where, oh where did my fire eel go.............

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prskiller

prskiller

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Apr 10, 2008
1,061
2
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In a 10g tank w/wife n kids
Woke up and found my fire eel missing. Moved them wood and stir up the sand yet no eel. Looked behind the stand and around but yet no eel. I finally lift up the filter media from my Emperor 400 and there it was in mid air jumping out. It landed on the floor and I had a tough time grabbing that slimy thing but finally I got a hold of it and put it back in the tank. Life is good, I learned my lesson, so I lowered the water level about an inch below the bottom lip of the filter.

9hrs later............I get home after my daughters hula show and work. I see no eel. Once again I lift the wood and move some sand no eel. Can this happen again? I check the filter by hand, no eel. I search the floors yet no eel. This is starting to suck, my daughters are torn. This time I remove the spray bar, media and bio wheel and there it is, squirming inside.

WTF is this thing up to? Water parameters are good. Only change was swapping the jag to the 75 and the eel which is growing very slow to the 55. His tankmates are 9 tigerbarbs and 1 rainbow shark.:screwy::screwy::screwy::screwy::screwy::screwy:
 
Sounds like he is just looking to hide in there. How big is he?
 
You need better hiding spots in the tank. Take this as a big hint. He doesn't feel safe. Make him a nice pile of rocks where the crevices between them are so small you are sure he won't fit... he will love it.


I love the imagery of finding the eel in mid air jumping out of the filter! Great stuff.
 
I had the same thing happen to me with a very UNSHY fire eel. He may just like that spot since he's discovered it. I had a fire eel that made his home in the AC110. Even though I had tons of hiding places for it, and a very low stock level at that, it just liked it there.

If I wanted it to come out, I would just put food (bloodworms) in the tank. Once it ate until it was satisfied, it would literally thrust itself up the spillway (even though there was a gap between the spillway and the water level) and get comfy back in the HOB filter.

I discovered all of this after it kept turning up missing. I even thought it was stuck in the filter at times. But it obviously knew what it was doing. I was afraid that it would miss the spillway at some point and hit the floor so I just sold the eel. They are smarter than we think.
 
prskiller;3554871; said:
He is around 7 to 8 inches. So far, so good since I lowered the water 3" below the spillways.
Click to expand...

Had a tire track that did the same thing.
 
also the rainbow shark might be harassing it. They can be very nippy towards other bottom level fish. I had a blueberry botia do that too... But more hide spots, pvc and driftwood seem to be all my eels favorites. wouldn't hurt.. and watch the rainbow shark after lights off.
 
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