Duke4Life
Just a crazy eel guy, LMAS
My journey back into this hobby started many months before I took the plunge back in, I only knew that I wanted an eel. I scanned through the basic information again just to refresh my memory and to get reacquainted with things again (Panther and Miniatus groupers, and Niger and Humahuma triggers were my love before, can't forget my crazy lunare wrasse).
My search for an eel had me looking at the viper group first, because when someone thinks eel those are the ones that most people think of first, many don't realize the pebble toothed ones exist. But after realizing that my fish options would be severely limited I zeroed in on the chainlink, snowflake, and zebra, especially after deciding I would go reef instead of fish only with live rock. While the zebra fits everything one could want, docile and fish safe, they grow fairly large, this was also the first off the list due to my tank size. The snowflake was the next I marked off, not due to size, but due to its attitude, it seems like more often or not they end up going after fish (countless post on this, going after fish is also why you don't see me list the dwarf moray).
That brings us to the lone survivor on my list the Chainlink eel. This eel was a bit tough to research as most of the information was based off its cousin the snowflake, the one thing that stood out to me is where this eel is found, tidal pools and it eats primarily the crustaceans found in these. Luckily we have these forums and I was able to get some great first hand knowledge which helped make my choice even easier. The only thing that caught me off guard was that it was in the top 10 worst fish a few years ago. All of this combined made it any easy choice.
I started refinishing my 125 gallon in early April 2015 and had it setup by early May 2015. The hardest part would be the next month so that it could cycle and be ready for whenever I found my first fish. On June 11, 2015, I took a ride to BlueStar with a couple best friends to see what they had in since I had mentioned to them the week before what I was wanting. They ended up having this small little 8 inch chainlink barely thicker than a pencil and fell in love right away.
He ended up coming home with me and settled in just fine the first 3 days, even eating some ghost shrimp and krill and showing himself, but it would be my own fault of what would happen next. While my tank was cycled, I had yet to add sand and didn't receive it until the day before I got him and hadn't added yet. June 14th, a Saturday, and I decided since I was off and not doing anything that would rinse and add the sand. The rinsing and adding of the sand went smooth I thought. Of course I was wrong because even though I was using PVC to reach the bottom my water was still getting a bit cloudy. Later that night I was watching him out for a swim and he wiggled through my overflow. After disconnecting my water pipes and in between switching my bowl to catch him, him plopped out. As I was trying to get him, he made his way to a vent and down he went, luckily I was able to reach in and grab him (another quarter of an inch and it would gave been over). I quickly put him back in my tank covered in dust, hair and who knows what. I woke up the next morning and felt better since he was still alive and made my tank escape proof, hopefully like Alcatraz Island.
Everything since then has been fairly smooth, from adding shrimp to firefish to wrasses, the only thing he has bothered is a shrimp every once in a blue moon. Alcatraz went from eating twice a day to maybe every three days now, with his favorite foods being squid and clams. While I never fully trust him to not bite I will occasionally hand feed and forget he's in my tank when working at times (he's nose bumped me but not bite). It's been amazing watching him grow to about 18 inches long and is about an inch thick now.
I can't believe it's been a year since I brought Alcatraz home but I hope me and my buddy have many more years down the road.
My search for an eel had me looking at the viper group first, because when someone thinks eel those are the ones that most people think of first, many don't realize the pebble toothed ones exist. But after realizing that my fish options would be severely limited I zeroed in on the chainlink, snowflake, and zebra, especially after deciding I would go reef instead of fish only with live rock. While the zebra fits everything one could want, docile and fish safe, they grow fairly large, this was also the first off the list due to my tank size. The snowflake was the next I marked off, not due to size, but due to its attitude, it seems like more often or not they end up going after fish (countless post on this, going after fish is also why you don't see me list the dwarf moray).
That brings us to the lone survivor on my list the Chainlink eel. This eel was a bit tough to research as most of the information was based off its cousin the snowflake, the one thing that stood out to me is where this eel is found, tidal pools and it eats primarily the crustaceans found in these. Luckily we have these forums and I was able to get some great first hand knowledge which helped make my choice even easier. The only thing that caught me off guard was that it was in the top 10 worst fish a few years ago. All of this combined made it any easy choice.
I started refinishing my 125 gallon in early April 2015 and had it setup by early May 2015. The hardest part would be the next month so that it could cycle and be ready for whenever I found my first fish. On June 11, 2015, I took a ride to BlueStar with a couple best friends to see what they had in since I had mentioned to them the week before what I was wanting. They ended up having this small little 8 inch chainlink barely thicker than a pencil and fell in love right away.
He ended up coming home with me and settled in just fine the first 3 days, even eating some ghost shrimp and krill and showing himself, but it would be my own fault of what would happen next. While my tank was cycled, I had yet to add sand and didn't receive it until the day before I got him and hadn't added yet. June 14th, a Saturday, and I decided since I was off and not doing anything that would rinse and add the sand. The rinsing and adding of the sand went smooth I thought. Of course I was wrong because even though I was using PVC to reach the bottom my water was still getting a bit cloudy. Later that night I was watching him out for a swim and he wiggled through my overflow. After disconnecting my water pipes and in between switching my bowl to catch him, him plopped out. As I was trying to get him, he made his way to a vent and down he went, luckily I was able to reach in and grab him (another quarter of an inch and it would gave been over). I quickly put him back in my tank covered in dust, hair and who knows what. I woke up the next morning and felt better since he was still alive and made my tank escape proof, hopefully like Alcatraz Island.
Everything since then has been fairly smooth, from adding shrimp to firefish to wrasses, the only thing he has bothered is a shrimp every once in a blue moon. Alcatraz went from eating twice a day to maybe every three days now, with his favorite foods being squid and clams. While I never fully trust him to not bite I will occasionally hand feed and forget he's in my tank when working at times (he's nose bumped me but not bite). It's been amazing watching him grow to about 18 inches long and is about an inch thick now.
I can't believe it's been a year since I brought Alcatraz home but I hope me and my buddy have many more years down the road.
