Breeding Garden Eels

[ladydave]

Hello

My Garden Eels have been spawning kind of semi-regularly for a few years now. I have caught and hatched the eggs a few times but never been able to get the larvae past 11-14dph. I'm assuming it's down to what I'm feeding them.
I have one batch parvo calanus pods but they didn't survive past 11dph. I've given another batch rotifers and tiger pod naups and a few got to 13-14dph. I tried another batch on a paste made from egg yolk, crushed lobster eggs and masstick, only got a few days out of that batch.
What I think I'd like to try this time (I have around 100 larvae now at 1dph) is enriching the rotifer and pod naups with something. Mainly because I cannot get hold of parvo calanus for love nor money in the U.K. anymore. Any ideas on what to enrich them with (needs to be available in the U.K.) ?

Unless anyone has any better ideas? I've researched this to death but can literally find zero literature on raising the larvae. Except one webpage that made it sound bizarrely incredibly simple.

Can anyone offer any ideas at all?

 

[ladydave]

I have a 27 year old reef with soft corals, gorgonians and sponges. My fish in there are a pair of blue stripe pipes, a vicious banded pipe, yellow assessor and a banggai cardinal. I would love to add shrimp fish (and garden eels) into the tank. Everything that I have read says that they are impossible. I spoke to a big importer and he said the same thing. What is your secret? Do they need special food? Feeding several times a day is not a problem. I am so jealous! lol

Which ones have you been told are impossible? Shrimpfish or garden eels?
I've found them both to be extremely hardy once settled.

The biggest problem I've had with the Shrimpfish was moving them, they don't transport well. I've had to move house twice since getting my first two and lost one of them each time. They seem to get air stuck somewhere and start to float horizontally then just die I lost one in my first move and added 4 more. Unfortunately two of those four didn't survive the transport very well and died within a couple of days. Leaving me with three. Then I lost one in my next move, leaving me with the two I now have. These two are a male and female and exhibit mating behaviours, they're great to watch! They eat everything really but love mysis. I only feed them twice a day.

The eels are some of my oldest tank residents, I've had a tank wipeout that these guys survived. I've had 3 (including the breeding pair) for around 5 years and two others for about two years. They eat literally everything I throw at them, including flake food and pellets. But because of the seahorses, they get mainly frozen food. But again, only twice a day. The biggest problem with garden eels is them escaping. My tank has a brace around the inside that's about 3" wide, there's a gap for the return pipes which I fill with filter floss because they will literally get through the tiniest gap, but only at the edge of the tank. I think the brace on mine is what's saved many of them from the carpet, unfortunately I've lost two newcomers from forgetting to fill around the return pipes with filter floss.

 

[dennis romano]

Thanks for the reply. Virtually everywhere where I have read states that both shrimpfish and garden eels are impossible. The shrimpfish because they are supposedly impossible to feed and the eels because they require a deep sand bed and are also difficult to feed. I spoke to Eric, the owner of Tank Stop (an importer) and he also says that they are difficult. He also saw a school of them in the Philippines and was amazed how they swim in unison. Now, you have me thinking. I did not know that the eels are jumpers. I have egg crate lid with half inch openings so they may out of the question. Do you have a deep sand bed? I wonder if it is because you are in the UK that the fish are so hardy. For me, they have to cross the Pacific to California, then go cross country to me in New Jersey. My blue stripes breed every month but I have yet to see fry.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

They eat literally everything I throw at them, including flake food and pellets. But because of the seahorses, they get mainly frozen food. But again, only twice a day.

What specific foods do you feed? Any idea how much of each and how often?

Also, do you have in the tank or feed to your tank pods/rots/etc. and/or phyto? If so, what specific kinds, how much, and how often?

 

[ladydave]

Thanks for the reply. Virtually everywhere where I have read states that both shrimpfish and garden eels are impossible. The shrimpfish because they are supposedly impossible to feed and the eels because they require a deep sand bed and are also difficult to feed. I spoke to Eric, the owner of Tank Stop (an importer) and he also says that they are difficult. He also saw a school of them in the Philippines and was amazed how they swim in unison. Now, you have me thinking. I did not know that the eels are jumpers. I have egg crate lid with half inch openings so they may out of the question. Do you have a deep sand bed? I wonder if it is because you are in the UK that the fish are so hardy. For me, they have to cross the Pacific to California, then go cross country to me in New Jersey. My blue stripes breed every month but I have yet to see fry.

The eels have a sandbed of a minimum 4" at the front rising to 6-7" at the back. But they mainly stay at the front so are happy in the 4". They aren't jumpers... they wriggle across the surface - so if they get to the edge, they swim up against the glass and propel themselves upwards, over the edges. My tank braces mean they would have to swim and bend in an S shape to get out which is impossible.
I can't imagine their journey from the Indian Ocean is much easier to the UK than anywhere else.
I'm not at home for the next few days but when I get back I'll take a picture of the top of the tank to show what I mean about the braces.

 

[ladydave]

What specific foods do you feed? Any idea how much of each and how often?

Also, do you have in the tank or feed to your tank pods/rots/etc. and/or phyto? If so, what specific kinds, how much, and how often?

I feed the whole tank one cube of frozen gamma mysis, one cube of gamma marine cuisine and one cube of PE mysis, twice a day. The garden eels eat anything that comes near them, even the huge bits of mysis and happily take flake food too.
The shrimpfish prefer the mysis and aren't shy about competing with everything else for it.
I don't regularly add rots/pods or phyto to the tank. Just chuck some in every now and then if I have a surplus. The seahorses, copperband, filefish and mandarin means I don't have a large population of pods/mysis anymore.

I don't know if they're happy because of the other slow moving/careful feeding fish in there or because of the temp/salinity/rock placement etc. I keep the tank and 22-23degrees year round, SG at 1.022-1.023 and do about a 30% water change every 10-14 days.

Maybe I just got lucky!

 

[ladydave]

The eels have a sandbed of a minimum 4" at the front rising to 6-7" at the back. But they mainly stay at the front so are happy in the 4". They aren't jumpers... they wriggle across the surface - so if they get to the edge, they swim up against the glass and propel themselves upwards, over the edges. My tank braces mean they would have to swim and bend in an S shape to get out which is impossible.
I can't imagine their journey from the Indian Ocean is much easier to the UK than anywhere else.
I'm not at home for the next few days but when I get back I'll take a picture of the top of the tank to show what I mean about the braces.

 

[ladydave]

We're at 12days post hatch. Just started to add vitamins and krill extract to the egg yolk. Got a few macro and microscope images... will try post what I can - I dont think the videos I've posted previously are viewable so will stick to pics.

 

[dennis romano]

We're at 12days post hatch. Just started to add vitamins and krill extract to the egg yolk. Got a few macro and microscope images... will try post what I can - I dont think the videos I've posted previously are viewable so will stick to pics.

Excellent job!

 

[1epauletteshark]

We're at 12days post hatch. Just started to add vitamins and krill extract to the egg yolk. Got a few macro and microscope images... will try post what I can - I dont think the videos I've posted previously are viewable so will stick to pics.

Looking good! I am definitely following along to see if you succeed with these guys.

 

[seamonster]

Hello

My Garden Eels have been spawning kind of semi-regularly for a few years now. I have caught and hatched the eggs a few times but never been able to get the larvae past 11-14dph. I'm assuming it's down to what I'm feeding them.
I have one batch parvo calanus pods but they didn't survive past 11dph. I've given another batch rotifers and tiger pod naups and a few got to 13-14dph. I tried another batch on a paste made from egg yolk, crushed lobster eggs and masstick, only got a few days out of that batch.
What I think I'd like to try this time (I have around 100 larvae now at 1dph) is enriching the rotifer and pod naups with something. Mainly because I cannot get hold of parvo calanus for love nor money in the U.K. anymore. Any ideas on what to enrich them with (needs to be available in the U.K.) ?

Unless anyone has any better ideas? I've researched this to death but can literally find zero literature on raising the larvae. Except one webpage that made it sound bizarrely incredibly simple.

Can anyone offer any ideas at all?

Hi.. you can try enriching the food with Selcon or something similar…it’s a food soak.

 

[ladydave]

Unfortunately reached the end of the road with this little one. He died this morning. Not sure if it was adding the krill extract too early or something else. But I have a better idea of what to do next time they spawn and will update on here when I get the next batch. Hopefully I'll have a lot more survive to this stage in order to try a couple of different feeds.

Huge thank you to everyone who has given me help and advice. I've made a step in the right direction this time and couldn't have done that without the people on this thread. Thank you!

 

[squidarcher]

I love garden eels, can't wait to see what happens!

 

[dennis romano]

I went to the local LFS this week and was shocked that they had a shrimpfish. It was the first one that I had seen in person in thirty years so I bought it. He ate mysis and small plankton for me so I was pretty happy. For some reason, he kept hanging around a water pump. I would gently shoo him away but he kept returning. You guessed it, he got sucked in. Broke my heart.

 

[1epauletteshark]

I didn’t realize shrimpfish were very uncommon in the US, I just have to drive out to my aquarium fish market and there are always at least 40 in stock at all times.

I went to the local LFS this week and was shocked that they had a shrimpfish. It was the first one that I had seen in person in thirty years so I bought it. He ate mysis and small plankton for me so I was pretty happy. For some reason, he kept hanging around a water pump. I would gently shoo him away but he kept returning. You guessed it, he got sucked in. Broke my heart.

So sorry to hear about your loss, they are really beautiful fish.

 

[ladydave]

I went to the local LFS this week and was shocked that they had a shrimpfish. It was the first one that I had seen in person in thirty years so I bought it. He ate mysis and small plankton for me so I was pretty happy. For some reason, he kept hanging around a water pump. I would gently shoo him away but he kept returning. You guessed it, he got sucked in. Broke my heart.

They don't do well on their own, they're really social fish. He also could've been a little weak if he got sucked into a pump. Real shame, they're such cool fish to watch. I'm hoping I can add to my shoal soon but they're not very common in the shops over here either.

 

[Tony Thompson]

A friend who ran one of my lfs actually contacted a few people for me a couple of years ago.

He contacted Kevin Erikson, President of MACNA, Til Deus Biota and BOCAS Aquaculture, Tal Sweet President and co founder Marine breeding Initiative MBI, Matthew Pederson 2009 Aquarist of the year. Breeder of over 20 species of marines.

Either they did not know or didn't get back to him. You're right though - it might be worth trying again.

Sorry to hear that you did not get any reply's from those I contacted for you. I know Kevin Erikson passed on your request also.

Since I seen your thread on here, I have contacted some people I know on our FB group that work in the science of marine aquaculture in Asia.

I have also sent a request through my academic contacts to the institute of aquaculture involved in the published paper concerning garden eels in particular.

Unfortunately the wheels of academia sometimes turn slowly. I will also make a suggestion for them to contact yourself for a possible inclusion in further research study.

Keep going, and good luck, J. I will Private message you if I hear anything.

 

[ladydave]

Sorry to hear that you did not get any reply's from those I contacted for you. I know Kevin Erikson passed on your request also.

Since I seen your thread on here, I have contacted some people I know on our FB group that work in the science of marine aquaculture in Asia.

I have also sent a request through my academic contacts to the institute of aquaculture involved in the published paper concerning garden eels in particular.

Unfortunately the wheels of academia sometimes turn slowly. I will also make a suggestion for them to contact yourself for a possible inclusion in further research study.

Keep going, and good luck, J. I will Private message you if I hear anything.

You've been amazing Tony, thank you so much for trying to contact these people for me. I really appreciate it!

 

[Ivanko]

Euryhaline rotifer Proales similis as initial live food for rearing fish with small mouth:​

The mouth size of the Japanese eel A. japonica larvae is large (521±28 µm), but they have 180 difficulty ingesting large and solid food items because their esophagus is characteristically 181 narrow and devoid of mucus cells (Yoshimatsu et al., 2008). The lack of mucus cells in the 182 esophagus may limit the larvae to ingest only soft, small, and smooth food materials. At present, 183 the primary food of A. japonica larvae in captivity is a slurry diet, made of shark egg powder 184 (Tanaka et al., 2001, 2003; Kagawa et al., 2005). However, the use of this food is not 185 sustainable because of serious depletion of shark population (Baum et al., 2003). 186 We conducted a series of experiment to determine if A. japonica larvae could survive when 187 fed P. similis, both as living and non-living diet. A slurry diet made of shark egg powder was 188 fed to the control group. P. similis paste was made by concentrating the rotifer culture at exponential growth stage and the concentrated rotifers were stored in a refrigerator (40 189 C) until 190 use, while live P. similis diet was taken directly from the culture tanks during feeding time. 191 Feeding started on 7 DAH and terminated on 13 DAH where survival rate and total length of 192 survivors were determined. Results showed that survival was significantly higher in the slurry 193 diet fed group (62.8%) than those fed non-living P. similis (37.2%) and living P. similis (0.8%). 194 The results indicated that A. japonica larvae ingest only non-living diet (Wullur, 2009). In 195 successive experiments, in addition to P. similis, we tested the acceptability of other minute 10 196 zooplankton species including, Synchaeta sp. cf. cecilia, B. rotundiformis, Keratella sp. cf. 197 sinensis, B. angularis and nauplii of copepod Paracyclopina nana as initial food for A. japonica. 198 Mass cultured zooplanktons were harvested, concentrated, and paste as described above, and fed 199 to A. japonica. Feeding incidence (percentage of larvae with food in the gut) of the larvae fed 200 slurry diet (control) was 26.7 to 100.0%, and P. similis paste was 20.0 to 46.7% (Wullur et al., 201 2013). The feeding incidence of larvae fed P. similis was significantly higher than those of other 202 zooplanktons (0 to 6.7%). The ingested slurry diet (20.3 to 68.9%) and P. similis (1.8 to 37.2%) 203 appeared in larval foregut and mid-hindgut, while the ingested B. rotundiformis, Keratella sp., 204 and B. angularis remained in the foregut. Although feeding incidence of group fed P. similis 205 paste was lower than the slurry diet, the use of P. similis paste is a good potential as food for eel 206 larvae because the uneaten slurry diet needs to be flushed out of the rearing tank every after 207 feeding time to avoid deterioration of the culture water

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Any updates for us here?