Freshwater Moray Eel?

krishj39

krishj39

Active Member
Hey all, I am thinking about getting a "freshwater moray eel." ***** usually isn't the best, but this week the one by me got a whole bunch of really great looking fish, FW and SW. Too bad they are terribly cramped in the tanks. Anyway, they have a "Freshwater Moray Eel." It says it's a snowflake, but it is probably one more adapt at freshwater. I would keep it with my two oscars in a 55. I would add just enough salt so that oscar and eel could hopefully be happy. If it doesn't take too well in the FW tank, I figure I'd just acclimate it to my SW tank. My other thought, is that I am pretty knowledgeable about FW and getting there with SW. I know it is a tricky fish to keep, and I figure it is better I get it than God know's who, and they end up killing it in a few weeks. What do you guys think?
Also, any info anyone has about freshwater eels would be appreciated, particularly personal experience.
Kris
 
fmarini

fmarini

Member
Hi:
there are a few brackish water eels which make their way into freshwater for breeding purposes. They actually are saltwater morays which have adapted to brackish conditions and will survive for a period of time in full strength FW.
It is not a snowflake, these eels stay under 30" (more like 20-ish")
A FW pet store got a bunch of them in this week, interesting looking.
 
krishj39

krishj39

Active Member
No, I am not kidding. The eels really are sitting in a freshwater tank (I don't think it has ANY salt) and look healthy. The question is, can they stay healthy? I did a search for "freshwater moray eel" on the internet and got a bit of useful info, but the info is pretty slim. So, it can be done, I just don't know how advisable it is. I have seen them for sale at other LFS before and I always wondered about them, but never too hard since they always cost close to a hundred bucks, which is a lot for most FW fish. However, the eel at ***** is 15$. Perhaps I could even buy it and transition it to SW, and then I would have a SW eel for 15 bucks.
 
krishj39

krishj39

Active Member
thanks for the backup FMarini! hehe
Oh, I just remembered, they said it came from the Amazon Basin. I searched on the net for an eel from there and didn't get any results. Basically this eel looks like a snowflake, only instead of it being black and white, it is more dark gray and white, so there isn't as much contrast, still pretty though. Anyone have a clue what species it could be?
kris
 
spankr

spankr

Member
I bought a snowflake eel at ***** about a year ago for #25. I cannot imagine that it would live long in fresh water. Although, they are very hardy I wouldn't try to keep one in freshwater.
Actually I just lost my snowflake two weeks ago. My Ebo heater malfunctioned and by the time I noticed something was wrong with the eel, the water was 93 degrees, he didn't make it.
They are very cool animals and I would recommend one.
 
krishj39

krishj39

Active Member
Exactly, yeah it kinda stinks, I really wish ***** knew more specifically what kind of eel it is. If it is one that is better at living in FW/brackish, then perhaps I could make it work. I agree with you though, true snowflakes wouldn't do well in a FW or brackish for any length of time (from what I have read)
 
holacanthus

holacanthus

Member
There are 4 species of Freshwater moray eels! When I say fresh, I don't mean eels that can tolerate fw or enter fw to breed but live their lives in fw. They are all brownish yellow to brownish green, and aren't very attention grabbing. They have the same requirements as the sw morays and are just as good pets.
 
jake22

jake22

Member
I kept one of these for about 8 months in my freshwater tank before i switched over to salf. He was tank mates with a black ghost knife, a african brown knife, and a clown knife. I fed him live freshwater fish. It was a great fish that I highly recomend.
 
krishj39

krishj39

Active Member
Thanks guys! I so happy to hear your encouragment for them, sinc I just went and bought it. S/he is doing very well. The oscars still are very curious about it, but they aren't out to kill it, just to figure out what the heck it is. The keep burying their noses under the rock the eel is in. I keep wanting the eel to bite them, just so they learn their lesson and leave it alone. Anyway, that's great news. We'll see what I have to do to get some food into it now. It is a bit tougher since the oscars will also eat anything they can fit in their mouths, and are far more active than the eel. I'm hoping I can add guppies and ghost shrimp at night and the eel will get them cause the oscars can't see them. I'm sure the eel could eat goldfish by now, it is about 16", but, they would be easier for the oscars to find in the tank, I think. We'll see. I just really hope I can keep the eel happy and healthy.
kris
 
bhav_88

bhav_88

Member
I'll clarify this a bit... The freshwater morays came into existence when the amazon river (Which used to be a saltwater river) was forced to diverge and become freshwater. This happened over a time period long enough to allow them to adapt to the freshwater. That is also where freshwater stingrays and similar's came from.
 
krishj39

krishj39

Active Member
Ah ha! So they are from the Amazon. That's where the store said the eel was from, but I couldn't find any info to back that up. Good, now I can have more confidence that the eel truly is a freshwater eel, and won't have to be moved to SW in the near future. What really amazes me, is that something as cool as a moray eel that can be kept in FW isn't more known. I would think they would be very popular pets, and more widely available. And, if it is just that they are hard to find in the wild and so also hard to get into pet stores, then I would expect the price to be much higher. I don't get it.
 
spankr

spankr

Member
do you have a picture of it? I also have kept freshwater Motoro stingrays. They were probable the mosin interesting of all marine amimals to watch.
 
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