Blue Ribbon Eel

[witespy]

Wow goingpoor you’re in my prayers tonight. I also love/hate these eels; I was able to get three of them from one hole. Two blacks and one blue, which all ended up eating after weeks of frustrating times. The nightmare started about a year later when the smallest black one found its way out of what i call Alcatraz. I thought my tank was lock up tight, but they have a powerfull nose and can open anything. I tried to save him, but It was too late, Crispy. The two blacks never left each other. Weeks later the blue eel started have seizers , and stopped eating. After months I pulled him out and into a smaller tank. As of now 4-5 months after the death he started eating . He eats two times a day. for a couple of weeks now,6-7; water changes two times a week. I am not sure what to do with him. The other black still loves the display and eats every other day.
the black ribbon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBVVi9Bi_FI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbB_1gVJ6xA
the sick blue : (different feeds)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2_8keuKfdA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB_uhxDGaxg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzVQJwlxUyU
Please these are very difficult to keep and should only be attempted by expert aquarists.
They need very high water quality with zero nitrates , also high and steady S.G
that Tube Anemone is no dice and will hurt/stress your eel

here is a updated picture and you know what i think i ended up with a black ribbon eel wouldnt he be showing colors of blue already he is juvenal but im thinking juvenail black hes pretty big???????????
QUOTE]
he does not look like his is going to turn any time soon, if you see the black fading, under his mouth... thats a bad tthing
I have many movies to upload, pictures and tricks if you found your self impulse buying this eel! But water is the biggest factor.!!!

 

[goingpoor]

thank you i just hope he makes the switch over to new tank im downsizing to a 180 i get it wensday,plus im setting up a 48 gallon bow front i'll put the tube anenomie in there to get him out of the way,i was wondering about that but of course was told i read to much on the computer buy one of the lfs employes.lol

 

[goingpoor]

ok i finaly had got him to eat a day before my change over to new tank,but he did not make it threw the mess i had going

because the lfs did not get the overfllows for the tank i was not able to set the tank up for 2 days and he didnt make it along with a few other fish

so i guess this is the end of this thred
the llfs gave my a snowflake eel for 10 buckls so i grabbed him up and hes a hog,hasnt went into pvc pips of course i had put them into new tank because i knew i would ge another ell .

 

[joojoo]

Dang, that sucks, sorry. The new SFE looks really cool though, I'm sure he won't be as much of a challenge for ya.

 

[goingpoor]

Originally Posted by joojoo
Dang, that sucks, sorry. The new SFE looks really cool though, I'm sure he won't be as much of a challenge for ya.
not at all he is such a pig he's eating 4 pieces of krill at a time

 

[sharkboy13]

ya, theyre near bomb proof so u should be fine

 

[dan83]

not trying to be judgmental, but don't you all think that animals like this should not be taken from the wild under any circumstances? there are not many out there, and they never seem to make it anyway. how many eels like this do you think there are in a section of reef, especially compared to something like damsels? taking even one from the environment seems like an irresponsible thing to do, given the consequences it has. I think that the future of our hobby depends on all of us having the self control to purchase only sustainable items, if not only captive bred.

 

[sharkboy13]

Originally Posted by dan83
not trying to be judgmental, but don't you all think that animals like this should not be taken from the wild under any circumstances? there are not many out there, and they never seem to make it anyway. how many eels like this do you think there are in a section of reef, especially compared to something like damsels? taking even one from the environment seems like an irresponsible thing to do, given the consequences it has. I think that the future of our hobby depends on all of us having the self control to purchase only sustainable items, if not only captive bred.
the prob is only a few swf will breed in captivity, and the demand for evry other species is too high

 

[witespy]

Originally Posted by dan83
not trying to be judgmental, but don't you all think that animals like this should not be taken from the wild under any circumstances? there are not many out there, and they never seem to make it anyway. how many eels like this do you think there are in a section of reef, especially compared to something like damsels? taking even one from the environment seems like an irresponsible thing to do, given the consequences it has. I think that the future of our hobby depends on all of us having the self control to purchase only sustainable items, if not only captive bred.
You should have had the self control to take your hands off the keyboard.

 

[ophiura]

Originally Posted by WiteSpy
You should have had the self control to take your hands off the keyboard.

Why? This is a reasonable question to ask. Agree or not, but is a perfectly good question to ask, and responsible hobbyists should be able to think about it.
Why do people buy animals that have very very poor survival rates?

 

[jmick]

Originally Posted by ophiura
Why? This is a reasonable question to ask. Agree or not, but is a perfectly good question to ask, and responsible hobbyists should be able to think about it.
Why do people buy animals that have very very poor survival rates?

It's a very reasonable question to ask. I think there are times when people don't research an animal before they buy it and have poor results, like what we've seen on this tread. It's a shame how people make you out to be a bad person when you question their motives and husbandry techniques. It's a shame, people will continue to buy animals like these eels, moorish idols, powder blue tangs, clown tangs and ect and have bad results and all they would have to do to avoid this is not buy on impluse and do some research.

 

[witespy]

Originally Posted by dan83
I think that the future of our hobby depends on all of us having the self control to purchase only sustainable items, if not only captive bred.
WOW... how much a fish?
There are millions of things wrong with that statement, do not know where to start. In the end one would not even have saltwater fish at home if you have that approach.
“think there are times when people don't research an animal before they buy”
-very true, but who buys a car before driving it?? (stupid people, and ever again, we hope. )…..the people that think 35 dollars for a refractometer is too much…...wow…that’s “animal cruelty”…
overall I believe people are good at heart, and want to do the right thing. most just do not stay in school long enough :help:

just embellishing at heart, but the drop out rate in Fl is not funny thax J.w Bush.

 

[ophiura]

Originally Posted by WiteSpy
-very true, but who buys a car before driving it…..

When I bought a car, I researched the HECK out of it. And any car that didn't have good reviews, were pronounced "lemon's" or poor performers, did not even earn consideration let alone a test drive. I don't need to test drive it myself to believe what others say, when the majority say "avoid this car."
So to equate it to fish issues like this, it would be that you would buy a car without any research at all, and even if people said it was a bad idea.
If people bought animals they researched and appreciated, there were likely be less demand for many. But it holds that few hobbyists actually ever do research -those on the boards are a minority by far- and so the demand would never truly be gone.
There are, BTW, many fish available that are captive raised in this hobby, so I am not sure why we wouldn't have any at all. But there is also a difference, IMO, between buying fish that overall have a good survival rate even if wild caught, and those that decade after decade after decade do not.

 

[stdreb27]

If you sit here and think about it, this is an awesome post. Taking what happened at face value. What we have is a person who did some research (if you read the beginning of the post) it would seem had a tank with good water parameters. She set up a habitat for him that was satisfactory. Got him to eat. But they still didn't make it.
What we have is a competent person who was unable to sucessfully raise some more than difficult fish. And painlessly reminds me as a someone who is relatively new to the hobby, not to get in over my head.

 

[ophiura]

Excellent point.

 

[stdreb27]

As for why.
For me I got into this challenge for the beauty of the fish. And the challenge of setting up a tank and keeping everything alive. These are two of the biggest reasons why.
So say a clown tang. They are a stunning fish, and a challenge. So these play right into the reasons I have a SW fish tank. Pure temptation if you ask me.
(I'm just explaining my temptation for getting difficult fish)
btw I'm sorry your eels died.

 

[goingpoor]

ya me to one died by getting into overflows the other one died because he didnt make the change to the new tank as for the clown tang hes doing fine and is a hog never stops eating lettece.....

 

[jmick]

Your clown tang looks great! You might want to try to feed it nori sheets or seaweed select. I don't think that lettuce will sustain it for to long, there really isn't that much nutritional value to it.

 

[goingpoor]

Originally Posted by Jmick
Your clown tang looks great! You might want to try to feed it nori sheets or seaweed select. I don't think that lettuce will sustain it for to long, there really isn't that much nutritional value to it.
i also feed it seaweed sheets ,brine .he willlll just about eat anything i put in my tank including mussels and squidd

 

[witespy]

I think that catching these things with Cyanide salts gave them the “impossible” reputation; do not get me wrong, they are very hard fish to acclimate into a new home. I have seem tanks with ribbons for 2+ years. (Experts tanks 10+ years) Could I call them “bulletproof”, I have had this one for over a year now, and I don not see him going anywhere soon. 9 months with a black
I use this