An eel hitchhiked it’s way into my tank, help a beginner out.

[uagirl08]

I would guess the eel bit the fish in half and the arrow crab cleaned up. Arrow crabs are certainly opportunists and I wouldn’t keep one in a small tank with nano sized fish, but it would have a hard time catching a healthy fish, and eating half of it in 30 minutes. The eel is likely pretty hungry and your other fish could end up with pieces missing (even though is primarily a crustacean eater, if it’s hungry enough it’ll go after fish). I would rehome both the eel and the crab.

I’m also curious what kind of brittle star you got, if it’s a green one, I’d re-home it as well, as they are known fish killers (firefish, which are not gobies, are the exact kind of fish they go for). If its not a green one, it should be okay, though I’m weary of large brittle stars in general, IME serpent stars are a much safer alternative.

I did a water change and put the old water in a spare tank to hold the crab in until I can put together something better for him. The eel is so shy that he rarely sticks his head out and when he does you can’t move or he’ll hide again. He’s about 5 inches long. It’s an entire live rock cave network that he’s hiding inside of. He doesn’t come out for little pieces of raw scallop on a skewer so he’s still in my tank. My 3 living fish are Caribbean Pygmy angel (had 2.5 months), orchid dottyback (24 hours) and purple fire fish (8 hrs). I’m too scared to sleep no more fish can die on my watch.
As for the brittle star, I think it’s purple but I’ve never seen more than 2 little legs. It stays in the rock the eel hitchhiked in.

 

[Kmst80]

I did a water change and put the old water in a spare tank to hold the crab in until I can put together something better for him. The eel is so shy that he rarely sticks his head out and when he does you can’t move or he’ll hide again. He’s about 5 inches long. It’s an entire live rock cave network that he’s hiding inside of. He doesn’t come out for little pieces of raw scallop on a skewer so he’s still in my tank. My 3 living fish are Caribbean Pygmy angel (had 2.5 months), orchid dottyback (24 hours) and purple fire fish (8 hrs). I’m too scared to sleep no more fish can die on my watch.
As for the brittle star, I think it’s purple but I’ve never seen more than 2 little legs. It stays in the rock the eel hitchhiked in.

Dont worry about the brittle star. I have two that came with my live rock and in the last 2 month all i have seen of them is more or less than 2 legs. I believe they are night feeders so your best bet would be to look out for it in the middle of the night.

 

[Drakal]

This is some next level hitchhiker

Sorry for your fish... But i still find it really cool...

 

[Little c big D]

A 5inch inch eel... how big was the fire fish? They are typically easy pray for any animal because they like to sleep in the sand bed. But a 5 inch snowflake is very small, it would have to be a real small fire fish for him to tear it in half. I've kept kept many snowflakes and never had an issue, however there's always that Rouge one out there

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

Update: I got home and everyone was alive and doing well. About 30 minutes later, my new fire goby was being eaten by my arrow crab. There was only half of him left. I got my arrow crab in October on the same day I got a Caribbean Pygmy angel and a Royal gamma who I found the head of the next day. I bought a new one and he too died and the crab was walking around with its head and trying to stuff it in holes. From that day until yesterday the only fish in the tank was the Pygmy. The crab never bothered him. After seeing my perfectly healthy new fire goby being eaten by the crab just minutes after I saw him swimming around m makes me think the crab is my fish killer. If the snowflake eel (who hasn’t come out of the rocks) killed the fire goby wouldn’t he have kept it to eat? Now I’m not sure whether to blame the eel or the crab.


This is so stressful. I don’t want to lose anymore fishies. Do y’all think it was the snowflake eel or the arrow crab?

Eel. 100%. My younger brother had one that took out all of his tanks inhabitants. It wasn’t even a big snowflake and it downed a hawkfish, wrasse, and dwarf fuzzy lion fish. Get that thing out asap. I recommend using a fishing fly. We bent the bard down stuck a piece of clam on there and got that sucker.

Edit: an even easier way to catch him is to wrap clam meat in yarn and lower it in next to him. Their teeth get caught in the yarn.

 

[Fatmike92]

Just some info, that example is of a fang tooth eel, like a tessalata, jeweled, fimbriated, and goldentail to name the most common. The snowflake eel isba pebble tooth eel, their teeth are blunt and like rows of crushing knobs like a meat tenderizer, they are to crush shells and such, as their main diet is crustaceans. Pebble tooths will eat fish that they basically can swallow whole, while fang tooths will grab and shread.

Didn’t know this! Thank you for the info!

 

[Wonton Soup]

I'm surprised this hasn't been said yet, but I have no doubt the fish store would greatly appreciate you returning the eel that they didn't sell to you.
Hooray for freebies and all but this is kind of a big one and you even mentioned you saw a label for it when buying the starfish.
Since it was unintentional and you don't seem to want to keep it....give it back.

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

I'm surprised this hasn't been said yet, but I have no doubt the fish store would greatly appreciate you returning the eel that they didn't sell to you.
Hooray for freebies and all but this is kind of a big one and you even mentioned you saw a label for it when buying the starfish.
Since it was unintentional and you don't seem to want to keep it....give it back.

Good point! Idk what they go for but that’s makes slot of sense

 

[WirelessMike]

I'm surprised this hasn't been said yet, but I have no doubt the fish store would greatly appreciate you returning the eel that they didn't sell to you.
Hooray for freebies and all but this is kind of a big one and you even mentioned you saw a label for it when buying the starfish.
Since it was unintentional and you don't seem to want to keep it....give it back.

+10 pts for Good Karma and save yourself some heartache of other fish being the next entree.

 

[uagirl08]

I'm surprised this hasn't been said yet, but I have no doubt the fish store would greatly appreciate you returning the eel that they didn't sell to you.
Hooray for freebies and all but this is kind of a big one and you even mentioned you saw a label for it when buying the starfish.
Since it was unintentional and you don't seem to want to keep it....give it back.

I’m all for doing the right thing. In fact, I called today and told them a creature that was in the rock they sold me killed the new fish I purchased the same day and asked if they’d replace or refund the fish if I brought the creature. They responded “no, it was a risk you took when purchasing the rock from a tank” so I decided not to return it since I can just as easily say it was the risk they took when selling me the rock. I didn’t even want the rock but had to buy it to buy the starfish living inside. Why should I be out $40 for the fish plus all the work trying to remedy the situation when they aren’t willing to even discuss offering a refund or replacement. They didn’t ask any questions or want any information. They didn’t even want my contact info when offered during the call today. Perhaps they’ll reconsider their customer service when they notice what’s missing.

 

[TerraFerma]

Update: I got home and everyone was alive and doing well. About 30 minutes later, my new fire goby was being eaten by my arrow crab. There was only half of him left. I got my arrow crab in October on the same day I got a Caribbean Pygmy angel and a Royal gamma who I found the head of the next day. I bought a new one and he too died and the crab was walking around with its head and trying to stuff it in holes. From that day until yesterday the only fish in the tank was the Pygmy. The crab never bothered him. After seeing my perfectly healthy new fire goby being eaten by the crab just minutes after I saw him swimming around m makes me think the crab is my fish killer. If the snowflake eel (who hasn’t come out of the rocks) killed the fire goby wouldn’t he have kept it to eat? Now I’m not sure whether to blame the eel or the crab.


This is so stressful. I don’t want to lose anymore fishies. Do y’all think it was the snowflake eel or the arrow crab?

Snowflake Eels are on the mellow side of Eels. Crabs of any sort will kill and eat whatever they can kill. Arrow Crabs are not a popular reef tank in habitant for such reasons.

If you want to return the eel dip the rocks it is in in a bucket of freshwater and it should pop out pretty quick.

 

[Zoa_Fanatic]

I’m all for doing the right thing. In fact, I called today and told them a creature that was in the rock they sold me killed the new fish I purchased the same day and asked if they’d replace or refund the fish if I brought the creature. They responded “no, it was a risk you took when purchasing the rock from a tank” so I decided not to return it since I can just as easily say it was the risk they took when selling me the rock. I didn’t even want the rock but had to buy it to buy the starfish living inside. Why should I be out $40 for the fish plus all the work trying to remedy the situation when they aren’t willing to even discuss offering a refund or replacement. They didn’t ask any questions or want any information. They didn’t even want my contact info when offered during the call today. Perhaps they’ll reconsider their customer service when they notice what’s missing.

A firefish was 40$? Jeez. Also they most likely don’t know it’s missing would be my guess.

 

[Rmckoy]

I'm surprised this hasn't been said yet, but I have no doubt the fish store would greatly appreciate you returning the eel that they didn't sell to you.
Hooray for freebies and all but this is kind of a big one and you even mentioned you saw a label for it when buying the starfish.
Since it was unintentional and you don't seem to want to keep it....give it back.

Not sure what it’s worth there but they are generally cheap .
$30-$40 Canadian

 

[Wonton Soup]

I’m all for doing the right thing. In fact, I called today and told them a creature that was in the rock they sold me killed the new fish I purchased the same day and asked if they’d replace or refund the fish if I brought the creature. They responded “no, it was a risk you took when purchasing the rock from a tank” so I decided not to return it since I can just as easily say it was the risk they took when selling me the rock. I didn’t even want the rock but had to buy it to buy the starfish living inside. Why should I be out $40 for the fish plus all the work trying to remedy the situation when they aren’t willing to even discuss offering a refund or replacement. They didn’t ask any questions or want any information. They didn’t even want my contact info when offered during the call today. Perhaps they’ll reconsider their customer service when they notice what’s missing.

You don't know that the eel killed your fish. It sucks to lose fish, and it sucks to deal with bad customer service.
Did you buy the firefish from the same store you bought the starfish/rock from?
I agree with you that it's on the store to keep track of their livestock and not be passing free eels out so you don't owe them anything.
However, it's not the stores responsibility to maintain the husbandry in your tank. Everything that ends up in your aquarium is entirely on you. Hitch-hiker or not.
Keep the eel, sell the eel, give it back, I don't care. Regardless of the outcome the only thing you'll take away from this situation is the experience. Learn from mistakes and persevere. I'm sure that's what the LFS is doing.

 

[MillennialReefer]

I doubt its the eel, being that its so small. I had an arrow carb for a few months last year that ate 3 fish while the 6 in snowflake didn't even bother. Also, if the eel is fed a lot it wont bother with eating any inhabitants

 

[landlubber]

i read through the entire thread but may have missed it, is the top of the tank covered? if not, i suspect the firefish will be recovered in a crispy state from behind the tank at a later date.

 

[Lyss]

My money's on the arrow crab, which is easy to google and discover isn't very reef safe. But there's a lot of assuming going on here. Either way, fish were turning up dead and in the arms of the crab before the eel snuck in, so my feeling is look to the arrow crab, disease, or something off in the tank that is killing the fish.

Edit: I'm also not sure why it was positioned to the LFS as a "creature." Why not just say, hey I have your eel and I think it killed the fish I just purchased. "Creature" to me says any kind of unwanted hitchhiker in live rock, not an actual animal they had for sale there.

 

[Rmckoy]

I doubt its the eel, being that its so small. I had an arrow carb for a few months last year that ate 3 fish while the 6 in snowflake didn't even bother. Also, if the eel is fed a lot it wont bother with eating any inhabitants

Not knowing the eel was in the rock , I doubt it would have been fed .
the chance it ate the fire fish is there ….. but I wouldn’t bet 100% on it .
There is also a chance it was unwell and died ,
Some scavenger part of the cuc started to consume the dead fish .

that being said …
I had a eel that ate every fish added , including 3 juv blue tangs .
we found them missing parts of their bodies such as one missing its back half . Another missing it’s head .

the bigger they grow , what’s acceptable for food is just a little larger . They naturally eat fish and crabs , why wouldn’t they in a aquarium

 

[Rmckoy]

i read through the entire thread but may have missed it, is the top of the tank covered? if not, i suspect the firefish will be recovered in a crispy state from behind the tank at a later date.

They are a dart fish ..
jump when scared and more likely to be surfing hardwood . Or shag carpet .

 

[Rmckoy]

Moving forward …..
if the lfs it came from isn’t going to offer some sort of compensation or simply buy their eel back from you .
take it to another lfs.
worse case scenario they offer you store credit which could be used to purchase another fish of your choosing .

I would vote against any dotty back , damsel as they can be aggressive which would encourage the next fire fish to jump