How large a tank for an eel

[klongo]

My husband just bought a retail cellular store and he's thinking that a saltwater tank would be a great addition (something to entertain customers who are waiting - kinda like a doctor's office).
He'd really like an eel, but I know nothing about eels (I have a 150 reef at home with very docile fish in it). I"m thinking an aggressive tank with maybe a lion, a puffer and the eel?
How what's the smallest tank that I could safely put an eel in with these fish?
Thanks for your help as I start out on the road to an aggressive tank....

 

[moraym]

Depends more on your lionfish, if you're talking volitan or a dwarf species.
The absolute smallest...well, you could do a 55g with a snowflake eel and a dwarf lion.
For effect, a larger tank would look nicer. A 75g tank would allow you to keep a few species of nice eels and a couple dwarf lions. Upping that to 125+ would allow you to keep some very nice, and large, eel species.
Just as a heads up, puffers may nip the lions fins.

 

[klongo]

Thanks. We have a nice corner between to displays that we think would make a nice spot for a corner tank. I haven't looked at any tanks yet. My original thought was a 72 bowfront or a 90 gallon so at least I'm in the right ballpark!
My initial looks into lions lean me towards a Russell as opposed to dwarfs.
Any particular eels that I should look at for starters?

 

[fishy411]

Russells wont do to well in a corner tank. They like to swim a lot more than other lions and they also have really big fins. A radiata would work much better. 1n a 72 or 90 you could have a cool lionfish/eel setup but a puffer would be likely to nip the lions fins until it dies. I would say 2 Antennata lions, 1 snowflake eel and another small lion would be good.

 

[klongo]

Fishy411
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm sure I'll ask for more advice as soon as I do some more research for this tank.
Now I have a place to start!
Kathy

 

[kdfrosty]

A possibility is a Valentini Puffer with a Volitan Lion. I have had these two fish together in an aggressive tank (90 gallons), with a Snowflake Eel, without incident.

 

[klongo]

Now that's exactly the combo that I was just researching! Is there anything else I could add in a 90 gallon tank with that combination?

 

[tome]

I have another combo. I have a arothron dog face puffer and a violtan lion together and they have had no problems. Probally a snowflake eel would work to. Thats all i can think of right now.

 

[kdfrosty]

Originally posted by klongo
Now that's exactly the combo that I was just researching! Is there anything else I could add in a 90 gallon tank with that combination?
Hopefully the goal's to let them grow without tank crowding. You also have to consider the heavy bioload that these fish would create. With that in mind, I would say that it would be safe to add one, possibly two more fish. Just dont add the fish/eel too quickly, and make sure you give your tank time to adjust. One fish that I always liked, and also had with my lion is a Dragon Wrasse. Just a suggestion...
HTH