Do's & dont's of inverts w/ eels

[waterwolf]

I have noticed that my jeweled eel totally disreguards my hermits, snails, & starfish. I feed him frozen shrimp. My question is will he eat an arrow crab or mithrax crab? Has anyone ever taken a gamble to see? Just doesn't look like enough meat on an arrow crab to interest him but without a shell I think it would be too tempting. I was thinking about adding a cleaner shrimp but considering what I am feeding him I think it would just be an expensive lunch. What would you recommend for a clean-up invert to take care of any chunks of food the eel doesn't eat?

 

[treble]

Its been said many times...inverts are not good with agressive fish. Shrimp, will get eaten, crab, will get eaten. Sure you can try it with a 8-12 doller crab, but it probably wont live long. What do you think they only eat shrimps in the wild?

 

[polarpooch]

You can do a cleanup crew in your eel tank. I'd recommend it even.
But I'd stick with the hermits. The arrow crab would probably survive for awhile, but eventually will probably become lunch. I sort of look at cleanup crews as a necessary expense in my eel tank. If you're thinking of the packages on SWF.com, I think there's a hermit only package. You might do OK with hermits and snails. My eels tend to avoid the animals with hard shells. In fact, most of my hermits are still alive. Which is not to say that they'll never get eaten
Don't bother with the shrimp. Eels love shrimp. It wouldn't last a week.
BTW, your eel needs a more varied diet than just shrimp. Eels will eat just about anything, so get some squid, fresh tuna, salmon, silver slides, etc. for him, too.
Can you post a pic of your jeweled eel? I think they're among the cooler looking specimens

 

[grouperhead]

Piscivorous eels usually do fine with inverts. Hermits do the best, but I've seen them kept with shrimp, crabs, and serpent stars as well. Bo

 

[waterwolf]

I am going to borrow a digital camera next week...then I can post a pic.

 

[yellowg555]

Will cleaner shrimp get eaten in an aggressive tank?

 

[tigerhawk]

I have a cleaner shrimp in with my Snowflake Eel. The cleaner shrimp set up shop about 3" from the eel's cave and even cleans his face off from time to time. I feed my eel Krill...he does not bother the shrimp. I had a friend get a cleaner shrimp at the same time I did. His Hawkfish about killed it, so he brought it over to see if it would live in my tank. I put him in, within 3 seconds the SFE ate the wounded shrimp. I thought my shrimp would be next but he still never bothers it. In fact, the cleaner shrimp will some times go into the eel's cave and grab up some leftover Krill (during feeding).