Eel Tank. Yep.

AquaOwner871

AquaOwner871

AC Members
Feb 16, 2007
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Hey Ya! I am moving my Green Wolf Eel (aka a blenney) to a 29g tall. I have plenty of live rock and live sand. I hear you do not need a filter if you have this amount of 'live' stuff. Instead i would get a protein skimmer and powerhead. SO! What kind of Protein skimmer and powerhead should I be looking at?? Or better yet, Does this sound good in general? Is that all i need?

I am have been looking at the [FONT=&quot]Koralia nano 425 Powerhead, and the [/FONT]Coral life Super Skimmer Needle Wheel Protein Skimmer [FONT=&quot]

Power Head--- http://www.aquacave.com/koralia-nano-425-high-brflow-power-head-brby-hydor-2891.html

Skimmer--- http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=13924[/FONT]


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[FONT=&quot]

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I wouldn't think a 29G would be suitable for a wolf eel. I had one in a 55G for about 5 years before I brought it back to the LFS because I wanted to get away from predators and into corals. According to the web "Minimum Tank Size: 50 gallons".

2707879785_66376bed5e_o.jpg
 
Hes not quite that big yet. Plus he is by himself.

Would this equipment work? I just noticed an equipment topic lower down on the forum page. I think i might move this there.
 
It would work just fine. They're not sensitive as far as marine fish go. My husband used to keep one just with a HOB filter and powerheads.

The coralife skimmers are pretty good, I've used them. Koralias are decent powerheads. The only problems I've had are with the largest ones seeming to not last long, but all my smaller ones still work.

These fish are a dottyback, btw, even though they're called a wolf eel blenny. Just FYI :)
 
The message below I had taking much time to type it to my exact specifications and this message will from now on appear at the beginning of any future responses that im with great difficulties to type and reading. Im with a lost of vision with the addition that im with a number of different disabilities, specially after following a stroke so that if it takes me the next few days or more to respond, it would be understood why. It would also help me direct those better if someone here was to email me when there is an eel question. Email: OldManOfTheSea38@msn.com so that I might start a response to assist in their quest.
Buddy



AquaOwner871, I been working on a response to your topic a little at a time until I completed my response to your line of questioning. You first need to know this, I kept eels for a great number of years and also I kept through the years a large different number of eel species. You would find if you researched a lot through the years your in the hobby that there be a great number of mis acknowledgements of the identities of many of the species to what is to be their natural normal behavior.

It was like one other I think it was at some other forum link that he wanted another spotted moray in his tank. He had no idea of the natural aggression of the species for I told him that the spotted moray will prey on another spotted eel, specially if one is smaller then the other, for not too many eels pair up and stay with one another.

But what you have there is a species that when they do pair up, they mate for life.

You will not be able to have small to medium size fish in its tank, the wolf eel even thought isn't a true eel its still an amazing species to watch. There happens to be four different species of wolf eels with the largest one with your wolf eel being the two known main wolf eels and I can tell you that the larger species when it wishes to change its lair, and it finds a new lair with another wolf eel living there, if the eel on the move for a new lair is much larger, it will bully the other out.

One of the other wolf eels is the Lycenchelys verrillii that grows a maximum of 10" but at most will grow to 6" and is confined to considerable depths, normally at 30 fathoms but is known to be much deeper at 600 fathoms. Little to nothing else is known about this species other then its color that is light brown above the lateral line, white below it, with a series of 8 to 10 irregular dark brown patches which the lateral line bisects, the belly is blue, its lining jet black.

Congrogadus subducens is of the Dottyback family and is or will be aggressive, but also, a larger tank is most defiantly required here, your eel as long is healthy will venture into the open. Also your tank top must be secured with no possible escape routes.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-04/fm/feature/index.php

The article above is an opinion of another person, but much of the data told in it is very helpful for people like yourself. However there be one thing mention in that article I not agree with and that is where it states that a wolf eel not require much space, for even that its not a true eel, it will grow large enough to be to big in a 29 g tank for please note that I a long time ago with my first single dwarf moray, a golden moray that grows 10" and in a matter of time for many with the feeling and waste, water quality can become very damaging in a smaller tank. I quickly upgraded with the idea of having a pair to a 70 gallon tank and water quality was never better for all the more then 14 years I had the dragon eels, the two tanks system never had any traces of nitrates, never.

The skimmer you be using, im no experience with such, I only hope that for the long run of this small tank, it does well for you, you need to keep an eye on your water conditions and if you see that your tanks nitrate level are slowly rising and your making water changes as you should, then you either upgrade the tank to a larger one as I would do right from the start too a 65. And you can do a little better to a 70 to house a mating pair, but that be your decision.

RiVerfishgirl, one thing I always noticed, it take just one person too agree with what one is doing that for the long run it will become well known to him at some much later date that he should had a larger tank, but also HOB equipment can leave this eel openings to crawl out from, your eel has gone carpet surfing. Also with small species such as these, when one has a overflow box, its best to cover it so the eel note escape out from that route, for many eels died in home aquarium by doing this and gotten grinded up in their return pumps.

I will keep all of above so I not have to take so much time to type again much of this when another wolf eel question comes up, I was typing this since the day you first posted.

Buddy
 
OldManOfTheSea said:
RiVerfishgirl, one thing I always noticed, it take just one person too agree with what one is doing that for the long run it will become well known to him at some much later date that he should had a larger tank, but also HOB equipment can leave this eel openings to crawl out from, your eel has gone carpet surfing. Also with small species such as these, when one has a overflow box, its best to cover it so the eel note escape out from that route, for many eels died in home aquarium by doing this and gotten grinded up in their return pumps.
Click to expand...

Maybe it's because I'm sleepy, but that part of your post seemed somewhat garbled to me and I found it hard to understand. So I'm not sure whether I agree or disagree with all of your point....:uhoh:

Do agree that anything it can slip out of should be covered. I've had freshwater ropefish, which are master escape artists, so I know all to well how some eel-like fish will slip out of any space they find, and also swim into intakes (so all intakes need to be completely secured). I once had an intake strainer on a powerhead get knocked off and unfortuntely one of my ropes decided it was a good place to hide :( . So I actually suggest glue, or silicone, for strainers with that type of fish.
Koralias, fortunately, suck water from all sides and have a small spiral shaped impeller in the middle, no intake port at all, so they should be pretty benign as far as equipment that will injure an eel. When the strainer comes off the front often the impeller ends up flying off anyway, so the powerhead isn't even running.

I wouldn't suggest a 29g long term. My post was specifically referencing the equipment, not the tank size, but I see now that it might appear to others I was referring to the whole setup, tank size and all.

I, myself, had a small wolf eel in a 90g for awhile and they seem to be fairly active fish. They also seem to have very good eyesite and will quickly zero in on anything moving in order to catch and eat it (and they can swim and strike very fast).
Unlike my moray who preferred to sit completely still in the rocks until feeding time (at which point he would try to exit the tank to get to the food faster :rolleyes:), and couldn't even see things directly in front of his face
Another thing (this observed by my husband, with the green wolf eel he owned before we met), is that his would change, during certain times of the year, to a very bright orange instead of the normal green. I do not know if that would be related to spawning, or something else, but I found it quite interesting.
 
OldManOfTheSea, I thought you might like this picture, being interested in eels and all.

morayandcrab2.jpg


We sold him when we switched over to a reef tank, and I regret doing so at this point.

(Ignore the insulting algae covered decorator crab at the bottom....)
 
No, hon, I had not seen that. I haven't been frequenting the general chit chit area of the forum.

I'm very sorry to hear about your illness :( . That has to be devastating, along with not being able to partake in your hobby. I wish you as strong a recovery as possible.

You're still a great resource for the newcomers and everyone else on the forum, so I do hope that you will stay well enough to continue posting.
 
Even buying a smaller wolf eel, it will soon enough grow it full size, not overnight of course. But in buying any marine species animal, one needs to have the best size tank for that animal, not have it in a smaller size tank for most in a case like this will not have a larger tank in their homes. You might heard from some in cases like these where they say that they might even upgrade too a larger tank in a few years, but most who do say this, it never happens. A 90 is great to have a pair, only it be a bit difficult to get an exact pair for their genders cannot be determine until their nearing their adult stages.

Yes indeed, their very active the wolf eel and like most true eels, all fast to catch a prey, for eels can move as fast in reverse as they can move forward, even during the years I gone diving, their was two brothers one time that were diving in the area I was one time, one was a teenager and he had a fresh fish in his hand while in the water. far from the kid was a large rock dome and in those rocks was a green moray. Anyway, the kid was about 35 feet away from the green morays position, before the kid knew it the eel moved out fast and snatched the fish without harming the kid and moved back behind the rocks in reverse, that kid wet his pants he said. I told his older brother that its best to have the fish in some type of carrying pouch to not have the fish just in your hand when in the water.

Eels in home aquariums, most feed all to often, their eels never seem to get hungry enough to move out quick and move back in behind the rocks. I seen this something like this most every time I was feeding a pair of H. dragon morays that I kept for more then 14 years, the male was most aggressive in this way, it was difficult for me to try and take a picture of him taking the food offering. Most times I tried to take a picture, all I gotten was the dust he left behind, and I feed him 9" long strip of salmon were at one end was 3" and the other was about 1.5"


I not believe the color changes you witness is in anyway related to spawning for you did say it was a small size, yes As well, like any number of fish I had through the years as well, had a similar conditions were their color seemed to either lightened or became darker and one of these fish was a queen trigger. But if any one is of interest to have a mating pair of wolf eels, you need to first wait until you could get them together at the same time and they would already be in their adult years.

I plan that if or as long that im seeing that I am helping some one, I can stick around its just that now it takes me like forever to type a message together, that what I will do from here on is, what I type I will save in a email to myself and that way under a list of eel species I spoken about, it should save me some typing time. This message took me all day off and on through out the day and I had periods of napping time because I as well am learning that the more I try to read or type, it tires me tremendously.

Just like yesterday on the phone, the guy I was to have rebuild my 240, when he called me yesterday I couldn’t really speak with him, for he told me this morning that I sounded to be in a state of confusing. It is what happens to me now when extremely over tired.

Buddy
 
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