When i was at the pet store i fell in love with the little fire eels, they were no longer than my ring finger. I have been doing research and noticed that they can get fairly large, but i asked the lady at the store and she said that one would stay pretty small and would do just fine in my 10g tank. Is this correct?? I would hate to buy one then it gets to be huge haha.
Fire eels
- Thread starter eful92
- Start date
well If its still tiny You can put it in there! It grows to ITS capacity of the tank.. or so I ve heard
good luck!
good luck!
Nope. It's a common myth that fish grow only to the size of their tank. I they do they are stunted and unhealthy. A fish should reach it's full adult size (or close to it depending on genetics) if kept in proper conditions.
Fire eels get far too large for a 10 gallon.
Fire eels get far too large for a 10 gallon.
yep jpappy is right. it is wrong to keep animals in tiny confinements. you can keep it in the ten gallon while its small, but you will need to get a larger tank to accommodate it's adult size. keeping it in a 10 gallon will cause deformities in the fire eel, such as a crooked spine. I have seen an adult oscar showing deformities like this due to cruel owners.
Really bad info right here..
Fire eels get massive. I just lost my 16" Fire Eel, he jumped.
Even the smaller spineyeels (peacock, zigzag) get too big for a 10 gallon tank.
The fire eel can reach up to 3feet. As Mudfrog mentioned, there are the zig-zag eel(be careful because this one can look a lot like the tire-track eel which gets really big) and the peacock eel. I would say a 20gallon is the absolute smallest you could go so long as you provide lots of hiding places and safe substrate to burrow in. You also have to make sure all openings are covered because they **will** jump out at some point and you have to have access to live food, like black worms, because of all the eels I've kept, only one would take the frozen blood worms and all ignored flake and pellet food.
Just and fyi, the zig-zag and peacock eels reach a size around 8 inches. If you are looking for something eel-like take a look at kuhli loaches. They are long and skinny like eels but they stay small (3 inches).
BigFishKeeper
Host of Aquatic Wetline Podcast