wackyvolitan
New Member
I bought a 7-8" snowflake moray eel last week, and I already had a 2.5-3" Fuzzy Dwarf Lionfish in the aquarium (55g). They did fine for a couple days, but then a few days later when I woke up one morning, the lionfish was almost dead, floating around upside-down at the top of the aquarium.
The dwarf lionfish died later that day.
At first I didn't know what caused it, but then I watched for a couple seconds and saw the eel circling around the lionfish and he appeared to be biting the lionfish. He kept circling him and biting him until he died, only taking a few short breaks.
I've always read online that a snowflake eel and a fuzzy dwarf lionfish can be kept together fine without any problems, so I wasn't really worried about anything like that happening.
I'm not sure if the eel actually did that to the lionfish, or if he only started attacking the lionfish after it was already weak and floating at the top. I'm not even sure he was really attacking him, he might have just been swimming around it, but not doing anything to it. But either way, this SFE definitely seems way more aggressive than my other one, and my old one was the same size as this one. And my water parameters are all good, pH is 8.4, Temp. is 77°, Ammonia & Nitrites are 0, except the Nitrates, which are 60-70. But the guy at the pet shop told me that was ok, since he said nitrates are harmless. I kept the other SFE with a 1.5" Percula Clownfish for several months, never had any problems. The eel never showed any signs or aggression at all.
I'm just wondering about the behavior of my new Snowflake Eel, is it normal for them to be that aggressive and attack a lionfish like that and eventually kill it?? Even though the lionfish might have already been weak, but I don't know what could have done that to it, it seemed really healthy and was eating well. And he was fine the whole time and never showed any signs of being sick or anything, until after I added the eel. So I was really shokced when I woke up and saw him like that.
At first I didn't know what caused it, but then I watched for a couple seconds and saw the eel circling around the lionfish and he appeared to be biting the lionfish. He kept circling him and biting him until he died, only taking a few short breaks.
I'm not sure if the eel actually did that to the lionfish, or if he only started attacking the lionfish after it was already weak and floating at the top. I'm not even sure he was really attacking him, he might have just been swimming around it, but not doing anything to it. But either way, this SFE definitely seems way more aggressive than my other one, and my old one was the same size as this one. And my water parameters are all good, pH is 8.4, Temp. is 77°, Ammonia & Nitrites are 0, except the Nitrates, which are 60-70. But the guy at the pet shop told me that was ok, since he said nitrates are harmless. I kept the other SFE with a 1.5" Percula Clownfish for several months, never had any problems. The eel never showed any signs or aggression at all.
I'm just wondering about the behavior of my new Snowflake Eel, is it normal for them to be that aggressive and attack a lionfish like that and eventually kill it?? Even though the lionfish might have already been weak, but I don't know what could have done that to it, it seemed really healthy and was eating well. And he was fine the whole time and never showed any signs of being sick or anything, until after I added the eel. So I was really shokced when I woke up and saw him like that.
