ok here goes, I get these guys in regularly and they usually move rather quick, for the most part They are pretty calm and only eat small feeders and shrimp *I only feed shrimp* but will eat anything small enought to fit in their mouth, I have never had any attack a larger fish so never had any problems with aggresion, they typically hide during the day and only come out at night, typical color is greyish blue and usually come in in sized from 1-4' in length. so they get rather large. Well here goes about a month ago I got abunch in and everything looked normal except about 4 of the smaller 12-14" ones they were bright green instead of greyish I have never seen them look like this before. but body wise they looked identical to the others. just a color difference. anyways I quickly noticed these four acted different aswell. they stayed out most of the time during the day cruising the tank rather than hiding, also they seem to eat alot more, they are always hungry so eating lots of shrimp, and even fighting with other much larger fish for them. Anways all the grey ones are in a large rubbermaid tub and I put the green ones in my 240 gallon tank with a 20" juranese cat. a 16" TSN a 13" Tsn/Rtc hybrid and a 9-10" bowfin. well it was amazing how the little eels would battle with the much larger fish for food, *note these eels being about 12-14" only diameter of a nickle at most. all the fish leave them alone so I figured the eels would be safe. I should have worried about the fish being safe, about 2 weeks ago *2 weeks after introduction of the eels* I got up to find my 20" juranese dead to the world. I was puzzeled as he was a healthy cat and really huge. anyways I figured it was natural causes but upon inspection I noticed lots of small bites on its side. the eels are the only ones with mouths this small so I figured maybe the cat died and the eels tried to make a snack out of its body but due to its large size they couldnt get a good bite because they were only bite marks no actual breaks in the flesh. anyways that was 2 weeks ago and these guys are growing fast, Super fast they are currently about 16-18" *diameter of quarter*already and still cant get enough to eat. they cruise the tank during middle of day looking for their next meal and sometimes even perch almost staning verticle *tail on the sand and head almost at top of tank.* looking around for next victim/meal* anyways I come home yesterday to my bowfin hiding in the corner and he was torn up with bite wounds all over him, so I drained some of the water into a QT and added some extra salt and Melafix as I dont want to loose him I love my bowfin. One of my favorite fish. anyways when I went to catch him in the net *easy by the way as he just sat there and let me net him. at that time one of the eels took off straight toward my hand and hit me right above the wrist, Its didnt break any skin but I felt some little sharp teeth and it was a hard hit for an eel. anyways Has anyone else kept the guys and experienced this kind of aggresion before? I have since moved the eels in with a 11" flowerhorn large Jag cichlid and some red terrors and they seem to be ok since these fish will bite the eels back if need be. But I have never seen FW eels with such aggresive attitudes I have gotten this same species in for years and never any like these, here are some pics attached, first pic is when 12" and last pic taken yesterday. the green has become darker than when they were younger on 2 of them but them two also fight more, and have lost some of their slime coat, I have worked with Huge Green Morays when I dealt in saltwater and I know that they are actually blueish in color however the slimecoat is yellow giving them a green appearence and if you wipe off the slime coat you can see the actual color, these guys *although not morays, they are shortfinned eels anquilla species* seem to be the same way. the two that are the most aggresive have lost some of their slime coat and have a blue color beneath the green. the slime coat always seems to come back fast however. anyways please refer to attached pics, and if anyone has experience with this behavior in these eels any advise is great. I was going to sell all of them but one but now I may sell them all, They are just to mean for my tanks for the most part.
