Thought I share this interesting eel catching vid.https://youtube.com/shorts/1j6OyJaOqwg?feature=share
So you want a swamp eel
- Thread starter tlindsey
- Start date
my former swamp eel.After good 4 years he found his death in my filter in the tank...Very interesting but also problematic and elusive fish.
Anyone have any thoughts on this eel's compatibility with clown+yoyo+horseface loaches, chalceus, and archerfish? I'm considering either this species or some peacock eels for a future tank with all the above.
I had one of these something like 50 years ago; one of the first fish I ever purchased as opposed to the natives I caught myself. It was an interesting specimen fish, especially if you like oddballs...I did and still do...but it's a predator that I would never trust with smaller fish. Not active during the day, but usually on display as it sat on the bottom periodically extending its body to the surface for a breath of air. Mine would often just sit motionless that way, straight up and down with its head pointing straight up right at the surface. Sit still long enough and a tankmate would eventually come too close...and suddenly disappear. I only gave it away when I moved from home to go to university, and always regretted it.
These things were once commonly available, usually around 6 - 8 inches in length, sold very inexpensively as Golden Eels. I haven't seen one for sale locally, either here or in Ontario, for many years. Honestly, if I did I would likely buy it...but everybody's taste is different. In your community tank setting I wouldn't even consider it (even though it would be the coolest fish in the bunch
); the Peacock would be the way to go.
These things were once commonly available, usually around 6 - 8 inches in length, sold very inexpensively as Golden Eels. I haven't seen one for sale locally, either here or in Ontario, for many years. Honestly, if I did I would likely buy it...but everybody's taste is different. In your community tank setting I wouldn't even consider it (even though it would be the coolest fish in the bunch
); the Peacock would be the way to go.When I was a kid I really wanted a freshwater moray eel, and for my birthday my family told me I could order one. I got one online as a "freshwater moray eel" .and it arrived extremely small not looking a thing like the freshwater moray eel from the picture. 12 year old me was told by the vendor it would become that later, and my dad had no idea about any of it so we believed him. It went into a sort of brackish water tank, and disappeared never to be seen again. Occasionally my fish would disappear, but I assumed my fish had died then been eaten by the rest over night.
I move the tank about a year later, and it pops out when I am removing the cluttered décor. Aside from my mollies which would sometimes vanish I have no idea what it was eating yet it had grown several inches. I think I found out what he was when I took him to the LFS, not a fish anyone really knew much about though aside from it clearly being a predator.
It must be amazingly hardy as my "brackish" tank was a disaster even by the standards of child me.
I move the tank about a year later, and it pops out when I am removing the cluttered décor. Aside from my mollies which would sometimes vanish I have no idea what it was eating yet it had grown several inches. I think I found out what he was when I took him to the LFS, not a fish anyone really knew much about though aside from it clearly being a predator.
It must be amazingly hardy as my "brackish" tank was a disaster even by the standards of child me.
I agree in the late 70's I worked in a pet department and the manager would order them sometimes. They were labeled as Marbled Eels. They were very difficult to handle and escaped easily.
One of my favorite fish magazines when there was no internet. Info on behavior and foods to feed them.
https://www.tfhdigital.com/tfh/nov_...cle.action?articleId=1448788#articleId1448788
The ones I have had I have found to be complete loners. Either sitting like polypterus do much of the time or hiding in floating plants. Never found them to eat smaller tank mates. In fact the hardest thing I found was feeding them, they have really poor eyesight and find finding food difficult, by the time they do it’s generally gone!
Wouldn’t trust one with something like guppies that sat in the floating plants on a night time. All this said of course and they are swamp eels. What you are creating is not a swamp. So if it’s for the tank with lots of current then in reality neither the swamp eel nor the peacock is your choice. If it’s for the one with less current and that stocking list then yeah, I’d have one.
Wouldn’t trust one with something like guppies that sat in the floating plants on a night time. All this said of course and they are swamp eels. What you are creating is not a swamp. So if it’s for the tank with lots of current then in reality neither the swamp eel nor the peacock is your choice. If it’s for the one with less current and that stocking list then yeah, I’d have one.
