Happy Snowflake Eel

[blueberryboomer]

Hi all, A couple weeks ago I posted we took everything out of our 72gal reef to get our 22-24in snowflake out to put in the 200, we planned on moving our baby out of the 200 into the 72. Just wanted to tell everyone our big snowy seems very happy, he comes out in the evening and swims from one end of the yank to the other. It was well worth all the trouble we had to get him out. Also I had asked about leaving both in the same tank, no ones was really to sure it would work or wouldn't, we tried for several days to get him out to no avail, so both are in the 200, they leave each other totally alone, one at each end of the tank. The baby has started something new though, he will get his hole body down into the sand and then just stick his head out to look around. Too funny! Both are eating very well and they both seem quite happy so maybe it will work out after all. It would be to cool if we had a pair and eventually they would breed. Has anyone ever heard of sfe breed in a home tank?
Had to share my joy with my sfes. Later Lisa

 

[grouperhead]

no, i dont even know if people have studied the breeding habits of eels. 99.99% sure they wont breed. just watch out, eels are cannabalisitic. bo

 

[b_ball12_99]

Glad to hear your eel is happy. Neither of your eels act aggressive to anything correct? My lfs got on in and I was looking at it and they told me I didn't want one in my set up because they are aggressive. I always read that they weren't really as aggressive as other eels. Is it true they aren't really aggressive?

 

[pufferlover]

My experience with my larger snow is that he leaves his tankmates alone and they do not seemed to bothered by it when he comes up during feeding time. It is in with a Coral Hog; Maroon Clown; Cleaner Wrasse (the only one I really worry about since it would fit quite easily in the eels mouth). They are all in a 45 gallon tank with lots of rockwork for the eel to live under.

 

[blueberryboomer]

Grouperhead, Thanks for the warning, at the first sign of aggrestion I will somehow get the baby out.
b_ball, neither one of our sfe have ever shown an aggrestion toward anyone or anything. They are one of my favorite fish in the tanks. Others will disagree with me, some have lost shrimp to them.
Pufflover, We have both in the 200, there is well over 100 lbs of slate and a long piece of pvc pipe in there. Tank mates include, Niger Trigger, HumaHuma, Tomato clown, goby, Valinitni Puffer, Domano Damsel. I was very worried when we put the big one in, are little one could not be found anywhere. I thought maybe he was in the overflow when we added the big one, it would have made it a heck of a lot easyer to get him out, NOT, he was hiding down in the sand, he came out at feeding time and I tried to scoop him out but the little s**t got away. I'm kinda glad I was unable to catch him, it seems to be working out ok. They both stay at oppsite ends of the tank except when they do thier exercise and swim back and fourth through the tank. We only have the two clarkies in the reef now, makes it kinda nice. Later Lisa

 

[salt55]

I have an 18" SFE in my 55 with a yellow tang, 3 chrimis', one blue finned damsel, and a tomato clown. He shows absolutly no aggression to anyone in the tank....I have however lost two small perculas to him. From my experience, if you have any slow moving smaller fish he will probably get them sooner or later. Also beware that their mouths not only open up and down but they can spread them out side to side as well allowing them to swallow a bigger fish than you might think. THey are next to blind so they wont really bother anything unless they bump into it during feeding time.

 

[npaladen]

I have a 20" sfe and mine does not bother anyhting I have except cleaner shrimp. I have had to give up trying to get them, as long as the eel is well fed he is fine with them, but once some night comes along that he is feeling in the mood for a midnight snack, poof, no shrimp. He gets along great with all of my hermit crabs, snails, and fish. And I have a couple that would easily fit into his mouth.
Be warned that at least both sfe's that I have ever had had a tank jumping streak on them. They were amazing, if I left even a small hole uncovered they would go for it. That is in fact why I am on a second sfe right now. But I absolutely love them, I say go for it. Bith of mine I got as babies(6" or 7") and I think that may be why they like even the smaller fish in the tank. They grew up with them.
Good luck!

 

[blueberryboomer]

npaladen, We have too also, we got our first one about 9-10 months ago, he has lived in our 72gal reef all this time, when we bought our 200gal we wanted to put him in there, everytime we tried to get him out it was a major battle so we decided to leave him be. Then one day at our lfs we saw they had a baby about the size of a pencil, we decided to get him for the 200. About a month ago our Mr Big came out from under the rock and we saw how BIG he had gotten so we decided to switch eels with tanks, big weekend job, the only problem was we couldn't locate the baby. Hence we have two sfe in our 200 gal.
Enjoy your we love ours, they are among my favs in the tank...Later Lisa

 

[salt55]

I agree, SFE's are extreme escape artists. Believe everything you read. I have cought mine twice trying to swim out of the tank into my skimmer. I have since ahd to block the entrance with a custom piece of plexiglass so that jsut the water can run back into the tank. My SFE is 98% of the time visible in the rockwork to some extent.
One afternoon i came home and looked for him and couldnt find him. I thought he was just in a cave he likes to hang out in. I took a shower and still no sign. Went out for a couple hours, came back still now sign. Now i began looking around the tank fearing the worst. Sure enough i saw his body laying behind my speaker next to the tank. i quickly moved the speaker and saw him move. I promptly picked his dry sticky body up and tossed him back in the tank. He is perfectly fine now. I figured out he had to have been out of the tank for AT LEAST 2.5-3 hours based on when i fist noticed he was gone till i found him. Toughest animal ive ever encountered. I know i could stand to be under water for 3 hours and stay alive. Has anyone else heard anything about an eels ability to live like that? Keep your tank well covered is all the advice i have. Good luck