Snowflake Eel for reef

[aidos]

There is a snowflake eel at work that is the smallest i have seen...its head would be of a simmilar diameter to this

maybe even smaller.... so hes pretty small.
My question is would it be suitable for my tank....here is wat i have.
- 75 gallon tank
- 45-50 kg of LR...dont know wat that is in pounds
- 4" DSB
- Aqua Master Protien skimmer rated for 200 gallon tank....pump is rated at 1000 litres an hour.
- EHEIM 2026 canister filter that runs efhi subsrate, get weekly change over of filtter pad and fortnightly change of carbon.
- power heads, protien skimmer and canister filter total turn over of around 900 gallons an hour.
- 2x 150w MH with 80 watts of actinic light...on timers
paramaters
- specific gravity 1.024
- amonnia 0.0 ppm
- nitirites 0.0ppm
- nitrates 0.0 - 10.0 ppm
my live stock consists of
- 2x purple firefish...full size
- 2x ocelaris clowns - female is around 6-7cm, male around 4cm
- 1x labouti wrasse - around 8-9 cm
- 1x rusty angel..soon to be returned to work.
- 10x trochus snail
- 2x conchs
coral
-1x bubble tip anenome
-5x hammer coral
-1x bubble coral
-1x daisy coral
-plenty of Mushrooms
-1x brain coral
-2x cynaria
-1x fungie plate
-plenty of zoos
and two pest mantis shrimp.
now my question is will this snowflake eel be compatible with my tank.. ie will the firefish be in danger, they are larger than the eel(if and when he gets to big and causes a threat to the firefish i can return him to work) will it place to much pressure on the bio load(remembering that im getting rid of the angel).
lastly i dont have a hood, i do have egg crate over the tank to stop firefish commiting suicide...Wat can i do to make it escape proof and will there be much chance of a small snowflake trying to escape if i feel him regularly, there are also plently of hidding spaces for him. many source i have read say that the first few day are the most likely time he will try to escape.
cheers guys...if ive missed anything let me know
:happyfish

 

[aidos]

BUMP 4 ME

 

[lion_crazz]

You do not want a snowflake eel in a reef like that. Not only is he really going to cause you to have a nitrate build-up, but they are not capatible with smaller fish. They become quite territorial and will eat smaller fish. The one I had killed and ate all the fish in my tank (niger trigger, dragon and blue headed wrasses, and a v-tailed grouper), and I was feeding that everyday and the thing about it is is that the eel was not very big.

 

[logen32]

i think it depends on the eel itself. I have a snowflake eel that dose not bother anything even when it is hungry, he starts to swim around the aquarium. I also have a red general star fish and a couple of crabs. Hope things work out.

 

[aidos]

So the verdicts still out.
Anyone else think the same or different to the above replys??
BTW cheers 4 replying so quickly
:happyfish

 

[aidos]

BUMP 4 ME

 

[lion_crazz]

I think the only thing to come out of getting a snowflake is that you may lose your mantis. Other than that, the biggest problems I see are the strain on the nitrates and the possibility of losing some peaceful fish.

 

[moraym]

Your filtration is adequate enough that if you don't overfeed, your SFE will not have a noticeable impact on your tank levels.
As for eating your fish, the SFE is a pebble-toothed eel, and not really a fish-eater unless it's pretty hungry. I've housed a SFE for a long time with a smaller clown and he's never taken a bite. Even when I travelled and the GF wouldnt feed the eel, he went two or more weeks without food, and never bothered the clown or gramma. Now he's in a tank with just himself and a smaller clown, still no signs of aggression.
For the top of the tank, for eels small enough to escape egg crate, I use nylon screening (porch screening from Home Depot). Although the bank of my SFE's tank has been uncovered for a year and he's never tried to hop out. He's pretty content in his spot under the rocks.
Putting a SFE in there isn't 100% safe, but it's not a very big risk at all.

 

[ethos]

I know a person who has a full grown snowflake eel in a 50G...so tecnicly you could.
But like it was stated above, it depends on the size of your smaller fish, your filtration, you reef (Most people keep them in FOWLR tanks) ect.
If your willing to risk your fish and the opver all health of your tank, go for it.
But, I'd not if I were you.

 

[hot883]

It depends on the temperment of the eel. I had a SF and a zebra moray together along with a trigger and 2 tangs in a 55. I know that will spike alot of eyebrows, but it worked very well and had only one time where the SF got out. If you have alot of corals and anemones etc. they can be clumbsy and knock them over or damage them in other ways. I hand fed both me eels and really enjoyed them. I sold them when we left Hawaii.

 

[rydogg420]

i would say no. just because i did the same thing it was small and gentle but it grew very fast im talking a cuple of months it dose not realy try to eat my fish but when it gets hungry it swims and bumps over all my coarls and nips at my fish if they get to close. now i want him out and you no how hard it is to catch him i've been trying for weeks now and i see no waay to get him out with out distroying my tank. i've even tried to hold a piace of foo0d near him and try to grab him when he trys to eat it but he bites pritty hard and is realy slimy.. so dont put him in unless u want an eel in your tank pritty much forever unless you get lucky and find a way to get him out. if u do find a way to get one out let me know.

 

[boalgf]

I've had a zebra eel (a lot like a SFE) with smaller fish and it worked fine. It ate inverts like crazy though.