Post your experience with E-eels

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Paul,
I have a few Q's. Im getting one tuesday at 30". i know his shock will still hurt but i dont think its worth worrying about. my Q's for you are:
-What do you use as substrate and how do you clean it. my tank is bare, only two large peices of driftwood and i hate barebottom tanks. i prefer sand but i would prefere barebottom if he/she is going to fling sand up into my filters.
-Also, other than tilapia, have you kept anything else with it?
-is there any way to be shocked through the tank? my wife is worried my daughter will be shocked.
-* anything special i should know that hasnt beed said already?
 
I concur about the rapid growth rates. My old one arrived at 10" more or less and was sold at 38" about 14 months later. It ate culled cichlids, goldfish, shrimp of all sizes, and lots of it.

At larger sizes, I would be uncomfortable recommending any tankmates unless the tank is somewhere in the 500+ gallon range. They simply grow too quickly to NOT snack on what they desire to. Smaller sizes (at 4") can be kept with other fish, provided they don't pick on the eel. 'Tis a pity they are illegal here, as they make quite intelligent pets.
 
I know electric eels can adapt to poor water quality but what are the desired water parameters to shoot for. Has anyone found any literature on keeping them. Especially pH and alkalinity, I've been told a pH in the low to mid 6 range is ideal. Now i've also heard when using hard water (typical in some areas) they can develop an unsightly curvature almost like scoliosis. Maybe this aquarist was wrong correlating deformities with hard water because other factors can cause this condition (overfeeding, bacteria infections, stress, etc..). If anyone has any good info on keeping these guys i would appreciate it. We have 4 where i work all about 3 1/2 to 4 foot. Oh yeah i have a sand substrate and use a gravity sand washer attached to a wood stick for cleaning (haven't been shocked cleaning yet). If you don't want to be shocked i would always use rubber gloves when your hands are in the water. Especially during feeding this is when they like to deliver the fun and light you up. Ours are very aggresive feeders and if you hand feed be very careful especially if your water level is close to the top of the tank, they will try to come out of the tank to get the food.
 
jaybass;1291601; said:
I know electric eels can adapt to poor water quality but what are the desired water parameters to shoot for. Has anyone found any literature on keeping them. Especially pH and alkalinity, I've been told a pH in the low to mid 6 range is ideal. Now i've also heard when using hard water (typical in some areas) they can develop an unsightly curvature almost like scoliosis. Maybe this aquarist was wrong correlating deformities with hard water because other factors can cause this condition (overfeeding, bacteria infections, stress, etc..). If anyone has any good info on keeping these guys i would appreciate it. We have 4 where i work all about 3 1/2 to 4 foot. Oh yeah i have a sand substrate and use a gravity sand washer attached to a wood stick for cleaning (haven't been shocked cleaning yet). If you don't want to be shocked i would always use rubber gloves when your hands are in the water. Especially during feeding this is when they like to deliver the fun and light you up. Ours are very aggresive feeders and if you hand feed be very careful especially if your water level is close to the top of the tank, they will try to come out of the tank to get the food.
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i have yet to find any good info on keeping them other than the obvious standard fiskeeping needs. pH should be 7.0 +/- .5, very cleen water to keep fungal infections down, i just added 74lbs of white silica sand, and i plan to add a bunch of MTS and a crawfish or two to stir up and clean the sand.
 
Sorry for the late reply, dont often check the fish forums these days!

As said, sand is great, they dont tend to kick the sand up when they swim there very graceful and hover mid level usually.

No chance of being shocked through the glass.

I haven't tried anything else, oh there's some banjo catfish in there (i think still!) I wouldn't risk anything that you value though.

Good clean water! Just avoid the extremes on PH and hardness and keep nitrates down to avoid disease and encourage good growth.

As for cleaning I use a piece of 25mm rigid pipe with 1" flexi pipe stuck on the end to drain my tanks, I just make sure my hands are out the water and try and keep the end of the pipe away from him as he's just started attacking it sometimes.

Good luck with your new eel!
 
I miss my E-eels! I've had two, one I lost due extreme stupidity on my part...I left the heater unplugged after a water change...in Feb...and I was out of the house for a week...it got a terrible bacterial thing...

And the second one I had for several months and was doing good, then a few days after feeding, the body swelled up to the size of a tennis ball, like it was filled with water. It was really weird, I've never seen that happen to a fish (and I managed a big LFS for several years).
 
Sorry I missed the pm about this thread.
I sold mine cheap and I do miss it.
Real easy to keep mine was eating hikari cichlid gold pellets and cichlids! lol
He shared a tank with an applesnail that suvived with him the entire time I had it.A few kribs lasted a few weeks then dissapeared one day.Mine was more active at night so if you get one like that moonlights might be in order.I didnt expect it to be a digger but he did a pretty good job of trying to bury the sponge filter under the sand.

Edit:mine was an e-cat not an e-eel
 
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