Snowflake questions

[peachie98]

So...through an unfortunate turn of events my little snowflake has ended up my 40 gallon (it's tank crashed and I put it in the overflow for the 40, and it leaped ship into the tank!).
Question...how much havoc can it wreck in a reef tank? I have about 100lbs of live rock and don't see any possible way right now of catching it again.
Anyone have any success keeping them with their corals and inverts if it's well fed?
Thanks!

 

[hlcroghan]

It will prolly eat some of them no matter what you do. I would keep it well fed. Are you planning on removing him later? If you are then you could try to do it that way but if you aren't I wouldn't plan on keeping any super small fish or any inverts. I don't think that they pick on corals at all so they should be safe.

 

[peachie98]

I'd like to remove him but he's found one of his "old" rocks I had put in this tank immediately and decided to go up inside it. It just happens to be on the very bottom of the tank under all the other rock. He's super hard to catch to begin with so I don't seem catching him anytime soon.
I don't have any teeny tiny fish...but do have a bicolor blenny, a purple firefish, and a yellow watchman goby. Those are my smallest and hopefully they're not going to go hang around him.
I hope he leaves the inverts along..but I have seen him grab a snail in his old tank (although he didn't eat it...just grabbed it since his fish piece was next to it). I'm sure when he grows up a bit he'll become a royal pita.

 

[rcreations]

People have had good luck with catching eels using the soda bottle trick or even an old PVC pipe where you put food inside, then the eels goes to get it and gets stuck inside.

 

[peachie98]

Might work! I've heard of that too. I'm thinking of not setting back up the other tank that crashed. So...that means eventually the snowflake eel will have to be sold/go to a new home. How do you tell when they outgrow a tank? He's in my 40 gallon with about 100lbs of live rock...he's still little though, maybe 10 inches right now.

 

[otter]

SFEs will grow to 22" to 28". A 60 gallon tank is recommended I keep one in my sps tank with no problems. I have 8 snails and a hermit crab. Any shrimp or other crustaceans are prey. SFE are not fish eaters, but have been know to "taste" them. Good Luck.

 

[peachie98]

Thanks! Hopefully he won't outgrow the 40 gallon soon (at least until I get the urge to re-decorate again).

He was out and about cruising last night until I fed him...looks cool when he swims all through the rocks and corals.