saving freshwater moray

[austrian_predator]

so, today at my lfs i saw a "freshwater" moray, together with some birchirs in a freshwater tank
these guys are nuts, they also keep small red-cheek terrapins together with huge mangrove crabs in a brackish basin
one terrapin was already being dismembered and chewed upon by a crab
apparently these idiots think that anything that looks similar will be ok together, because they had some "eel gobys" (translation from german, dunno the real english name) in the moray/birchir tank as well
i'd like to save the moray from its slow death in the freshie tank, but how big a tank would it need? and how big does it grow?

 

[dr_sudz]

Do you have any pics of the eel? If we can id it then we can help more.

 

[mfk4life]

there really is a fresh water moray eel though dude. thats no joke.

 

[austrian_predator]

there really is a fresh water moray eel though dude. thats no joke.

yes i know. it was a so-called freshwater moray, but it cannot live in freshwater for long, despite the misleading name. that's the joke.
obviously, the shop owner does not know this and will either keep it till it dies or sell it to someone with a freshwater tank

 

[Cichlaholics Anonymous]

there really is a fresh water moray eel though dude. thats no joke.

they are not best kept in pure freshwater for the duration of their lives though. Especially when talking about the common "FW morays" like Gymnothorax tile which in the last few years has been considered the "fw moray" which is popular

 

[austrian_predator]

they are not best kept in pure freshwater for the duration of their lives though. Especially when talking about the common "FW morays" like Gymnothorax tile which in the last few years has been considered the "fw moray" which is popular

yep, i looked at some pics, it probably was a G. tile
unfortunately, the grow to around 60cm and i can't afford to house a predator of that size atm...poor moray will be sold to some idiot with a FW tank

 

[bromie88]

yep, i looked at some pics, it probably was a G. tile
unfortunately, the grow to around 60cm and i can't afford to house a predator of that size atm...poor moray will be sold to some idiot with a FW tank

Ah.... but can you afford to house a predator like that in the near future?

slightly cramped (for a while) conditions have gotta be better than death right?

 

[loganh83]

As far as I am aware, these moray eels are anadromous. I don't think it will live a long life in a freshwater enviroment.

 

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

I don't know much about eels but the eel gobies could belong to the genus Taenioides. They could also be Odontamblyopus, or possibly Caragobius. As far as I know, all of these are brackish fish that are very rare in the hobby (in the U.S. at least). The largest among those genera could exceed 12" in length, but may stay smaller than the common violet goby, Gobioides broussonnetii. If, for whatever reason, the owner of the store has never seen a violet goby before, they might also call that an eel goby, but their requirements are all pretty much the same.
Any eel goby other than the violet probably isn't going to be a tankbuster. It may be worthwhile to save some of them, and if you can't accomodate them, give them to someone who can.