Black ribbon eel,will eat tank mates?

Oliver94 · May 6, 2014

Hello everyone!
I hope you are having a great day!
In my previous post I was asking about opinions to get this black ribbon eel that is still a young one.
I know they can turn difficult to feed,that's why I will ask for the LFS to feed it in front of me before getting it.
My question here is not about his feeding.

I will keep it in my 120g with 111lbs of live rock in the display tank.Is he is well fed,will he eat my osc. clowns?firefish?mm.. cardinals..?
Noting that all these fish cited are bigger in size than the mouse of the eel I saw

Thank you very much !

Have a nice day!

Oliver94 · May 6, 2014

....If he is well fed,will he eat my osc. clowns?firefish?mm.. cardinals..?... (sorry for the mistake)

Kano · May 6, 2014

Your osc might be ok depending on size and if they host an anemone that might be able to protect them. The others are probably bite size. You might get lucky but if you keep an eel of any kind you accept that any fish/invert you add is potentially food.

Oliver94 · May 6, 2014

Thank you Kano for your reply

Even if the fish is way bigger than his mouth? Will he go and eat it?

Kano · May 6, 2014

No eel is the same. Just because it doesn't fit doesn't mean they won't try and make it fit. You might get lucky and have him not touch anything. You might end up with an eel display tank. I've never kept a ribbon eel so hopefully someone who has can comment with first hand experience.

Oliver94 · May 6, 2014

Thank you Kano! I hope to fall on a good one! He is in a display tank in my LFS with lots of live rocks and a couple of picasso clown fish(medium sized) and a mandarine..
They have been together for a month and half said the LFS..
I hope it will work.
Please if anyone have experience with this eel,if possible that he shares his opinion,I would really appreciate it.

Thanks again Kano and have a nice day!

merlberg · Feb 22, 2015

I recently experienced this and it might just depend on your eel. I have a black ribbon eel and they say it will not touch anything that can't go in their mouth. Well I purchased a blue damsel but it wasn't a yellow tail and it was a good size. He def couldn't eat it and I also purchased him a yellowtail damsel to eat. The first thing he started trying to attack was the big blue damsel which was so odd to me because he was not going trying to eat the little fishes at all. The next day I found my big blue damsel dead in the tank but he still ate the little one. I'm assuming he couldn't eat the big one so Thts why he just left it. When I told the fish place this tht I usually go too they said are you sure there's nothing wrong with your water because they never attack something they can't eat but my everything with my water was fine and the rest of my fishes were ok. I have the black ribbon and yellow tank domino damsel and a green chromis fish.. I think Thts what the last one is called but anyways I say just keep an eye out if you do!