Planning on a fire eel, and I gots questions!

[aclockworkorange]

I've been setting up my new 125 gallon for a while now. It will be fully cycled soon, and running very good filtration... etc.

I would like to put 7 clown loaches, and BGK, and a fire eel in the tank, however, the fire eel is the priority... the "favorite" if you will. I have read all sorts of information on the compatibility of these species, and have concluded that they should be ok, depending on individual temperament.

The tank has a sand substrate and will have many many pieces of driftwood and hidey-holes.

So the questions:
1) Does anyone see any glaring problems with this setup?
2) What order should I add them to the tank?
3) What should I expect my feeding routine to be like? I assume the eel will have to be hand fed?
4) Anything else I should know?

Thanks

 

[MonsterMinis]

1) You'll likely need to upgrade the fire eel to a 180 or 220 or larger in approx 2-3yrs. depending on the clown loach sizes, as they grow very slow the eel may take a crack at them. w/ loaches the cheek barbs are a potential choking hazard. Is it likely? no, but possible? yes. the BGK will also need an upgrade if you keep it 8+ yrs. fish species that get 2'+ don't fair well long term in an 18" deep tank.

2) clown loaches, fire eel, BGK .. preferable the BGK and fire at the same time.

3) expect to feed daily or 2x + on the bgk and fire the first few monthes. particualrly if you are buying juvies.

4) fire eels are notoriousely hard to get offa live worms/ghost shrimp/ ect.. They are not cheap to feed. Be prepared w/ a local LFS to have live foods readily available to you, or bait shops that year round stock worms. I spend approx 2.50$ a doz on nightcrawlers from the local bait shop. And feed out approx 4 doz a week.

Sounds like you've done your homework, and if your prepared to offer a larger tank in the future you should have minimal issues.

 

[TheEelKing]

1) You'll likely need to upgrade the fire eel to a 180 or 220 or larger in approx 2-3yrs. depending on the clown loach sizes, as they grow very slow the eel may take a crack at them. w/ loaches the cheek barbs are a potential choking hazard. Is it likely? no, but possible? yes. the BGK will also need an upgrade if you keep it 8+ yrs. fish species that get 2'+ don't fair well long term in an 18" deep tank.

2) clown loaches, fire eel, BGK .. preferable the BGK and fire at the same time.

3) expect to feed daily or 2x + on the bgk and fire the first few monthes. particualrly if you are buying juvies.

4) fire eels are notoriousely hard to get offa live worms/ghost shrimp/ ect.. They are not cheap to feed. Be prepared w/ a local LFS to have live foods readily available to you, or bait shops that year round stock worms. I spend approx 2.50$ a doz on nightcrawlers from the local bait shop. And feed out approx 4 doz a week.

Sounds like you've done your homework, and if your prepared to offer a larger tank in the future you should have minimal issues.

I agree with this completely. The only thing I have to say is I doubt a 125 can hold a BGK for 8 years. I've had my BGK for about 10 months and it grew from 2 inches to 8 inches in the time that I've already had it. They don't grow as slow as people lead you to believe. They have a growth potential of 2 feet and will reach this size in captivity. One guy on these boards has a 20 incher.

If you want your loaches to be safe with the fire eel long term with no concerns of predation, buy your loaches at 3-4 inches or bigger to start out with so when the eel grows, it won't look at them as lunch. Fire eels tend to be very gentle, though, and not very predatory unlike their tire track eel counterparts.

As far as food goes, I feed my fire eel earthworms and krill. Earthworms are a bit expensive as you can easily spend about $10 a week on feeding your fire eel if you feed it earthworms exclusively. I alternate days. I'll feed my eel earthworms one day and frozen krill the next. You can get a large flatpack of krill from Petsmart for about $11 and it lasts about 2 weeks. (It will last the guy starting this thread even longer since he has far less fish than I to eat the krill). The krill will help to bring out the coloration in the fire eel.

If you get the BGK small (HIGHLY recommended that you get the knife and eel small so you don't have to upgrade right away and the fish can grow up together. I'd get the eel at about 8 inches and the BGK at about 3-4 inches), add cut up red wriggler worms to its diet. Eventually, you'll be able to upgrade to cut up earthworms. These foods are high in protein and will be your knife's favorite food.

I have a nice shoal of clown loaches, a black ghost knife and fire eel in my setup (along with other fish) and have no problems at all. My fish are in a 180 and I'm upgrading to a 300 in a few months.

 

[MonsterMinis]

Thanks for the added Info. All the BGk's I've seen grew slow, but they where likely not being fed the optimal diet as you're suggesting. They where fed highly on frozen brine and other "store bought" foods. And I envy you having an eel that takes frozen. As of today mine still refuse frozen krill or any prepared foods. I also got mine fairly large. Your chances of prepared foods being taken increases imo w/ the smaller you get them. But I wouldn't reccomend anything smaller then 4" as they are very delicate.

 

[TheEelKing]

I got my fire eel in the 7-8 inch range and the store had been feeding it krill only, so all I had to do was add worms to its diet. I am with you though about the "worm-only" diet being expensive. The first fire eel I bought was over 12 inches long. The only thing it would eat were worms and not just any worms, but red wrigglers. It would not eat nightcrawlers which I could have bought at a cheaper price. lol. I was spending $15 a week on worms to feed the fire eel. oy!

As far as the BGKs growing slowly, many people feed their BGKs frozen bloodworms exclusively. Its not a very nutritious food and I think that's why some people have knives that grow slowly. I think worms are about 70% protein, if I am remembering correctly. If you cut up red wrigglers small enough for the knife to eat, it should go right at it. (At 8 inches, mine can now eat the red wriggler whole and it just takes one to fill it up for its meal. I feed the knife twice a day. It will take cut up small nightcrawlers as long as the worm isn't too thick, but the store is out of those now, so I give it whole red wriggler worms which are thinner than earthworms.) I didn't have to starve my knife onto it at all, however, I got it the knife at a little over 2 inches long. I hand feed the knife its red wriggler. lol!

 

[Bderick67]

20" BGK here on MFK? Got a link, haven't seen anyone post that here.


My BGK and fire used to fight something terrible, though neither inflicted much damage. I had to get rid of my fire eel though as my tire track was beating it pretty bad, I don't really have a place to keep two 30" plus eels.

 

[TheEelKing]

Go on the "knifefish" board and ask for the link. I don't have the link, but I think Benjamin may. Its HUGE.

My knife and fire eel aren't having any problems at all. Of course, my knife grew to about 4 inches when I added my 7-8 inch fire eel to the tank. They even share the same cave sometime. The only time they come into conflict is when they play tug-a-war over a worm. The fire eel always wins. lol

Your telling me how your fire eel fought with your BGK and I saw on another thread where a fire eel beat a tigrinus shovelnose is very shocking to me. I was concerned about my fire eel getting beat up by my clown knife when the CK gets larger, but now I see that the fire eel can defend itself (though I find it hard to believe a fire eel stands any chance at all against a peeved CK).