anybody know anything about these? this website says they get about 18" long and another website says 39" another website says they are pretty peaceful towards fish that are too big to fit in their mouths, but agressive towards each other.
i wonder how one of these would do with an oscar in a 150g tank?
I dont have a fire eel but I have a peacock eel and a zig-zag eel. They are in the same family as the fire eel. From what I understand the fire eel will get to be about 3ft long so they need a fairly large tank. 150gallons should be fine. They are, IMHO, the most beautiful of the spiney eels. You should be careful because they are escape artists, believe me, I had a near death experience with Squiggles and now I am careful to make sure that every opening is covered carefully. If fire eels are anything like the rest of their family then I would imagin they are alot of fun. Mine are full of personality.
I have read places that they are considered aggressive but mine are very peaceful especially towards each other. In fact most of the time they are never far from each other and are often sharing the same hiding place too.
Another site I found helpful was the Tropical Fish Forum, it has a whole section specifically set aside for odd-balls. http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?
I love my eels, and I would love to be able to get a big eels like a tire track or a fire eel but I don't have the space for a big tank yet. Maybe someday! I hope this helps you.
i am already planning on getting about a 150g tank for an oscar and a small species of pleco. would a fire eel get along with an oscar? they sound like they get far too big to fit in an O's mouth, and oscarss will usually leave anything alone that's too big for their mouth. i plan on getting about a 12" long fire eel (that's the size of the ones i saw in the pet store) and a 3" oscar, and they can grow up together. would that help them get along when they're big?
thanks, aqualandpetsplus has always been helpful, you should really credit them. there oddball section is especialy good. Also give them a sand sub-strate as they like to borrow and it makes them feel more secure. also they do have a habit of rapping themeselves around the heater and burning themselves, almost to the point of death. there are speciallized heater guards for this, I imagine they would also help for curious large cichlids that ram heaters.
should they be in groups or alone? because i've heard both. some websites say they should be in groups and they will all curl up together in caves and stuff, and other websites say they are agressive towards each other when they get large and should be kept solo.
I would say the oscar and eel would be alright together so long as one doesnt fit in the others mouth. My two eels get along great and show absolutly no aggression so I would say from personal experience that they are fine together. Now I wouldnt put a 3ft eel with a 3inch eel because thats just giving the bigger eel a pricey snack but I think if they are within a couple inches of each other they should be fine. I bought my zig zag eel a couple months before my peacock eel and he is slightly longer and quite abit rounder then the peacock eel but they get along great. I didnt have any aggression or territorial problems.
I have to second the sand substrate. My peacock eel, without fail, burries itself every morning and doesnt come out until the lights get turned out at night. Its cute to see its nose poking out of the sand and its always fun to try and spot it. On the other hand, my zig zag eel shows no interest in burring itself. It never has and I thought that maybe once it saw the other one do it, it would try as well. No such luck. In fact, it likes to be out and about all day exploring the tank.
What I did in this case was I have a moderately planted tank to offer the zig zag some hiding but I also added a plastic half log which he seems to like to sit in. Tubing would work just as well but I liked to the look of the log better!
what if i got two small-ish (8-12") eels, and a small oscar, like 3 inches, and let them all grow up together? think they would all get along in a 150g tank? or would they need more space than that even? do spiney eels grow pretty fast?
