Eels in mixed reef tank

[Jstew75]

Has anyone had any success or nightmare stories about keeping either a snowflake eel or dwarf moray in a reef tank? Both have always intrigued me and I would love some feedback!!!!

 

[lion king]

I'm not a fan of the dwarf moray, if you keep them long enough into maturity, there's a good chance they will become biters. As long as you size your fish appropriately the snowflake can be a good addition, shrimp and crabs will be on the menu. Be mindful of coral placement outside of the eels cruising path and other than that, there's usually little issue.

 

[Jstew75]

Good to know about dwarf morays becoming biters that's a nightmare situation!

 

[areefer01]

Let me preference this by saying I do not own one in my mixed reef. My comments are only opinions from my reading for research as I have always wanted to keep one.

Can you - of course. Planning and preparation is everything though. Right animal/eel. Right fish and invert display mates. Right aquascape. Right securing of said aquascape. Safe flow to prevent harming of eel. Secure lid to protect eel. Feed requirements and PPE such as tongs, gloves, and platform to stand on if needed. These things and more will more or less lead you to success as you are prepared.

With regards to nightmares I think they can only happen for two reasons. One the hobbyist didn't properly prepare for the animal. Added things small enough to eat (links goby for example) or no lid, or open power head exposed, little attention to detail. Onus is on we the hobbyist. The second reason regarding nightmare(s) is that we really don't know. The are wild. They have their own temperament. And honestly we don't have a say in the matter. We plan. We can't interview the eel

TL; DR - I do think it is possible if the hobbyist prepares, sets up the system properly, and is ready for the task to buy corals, equipment, and fish, that can co-exist. All the best to you.

 

[Slocke]

As said it's really dependent on whether you want inverts and how well you pick the other tank inhabitants. Also there are more safe eels. I've had no problems so far with 3 eels.

 

[Jstew75]

What eels do you recommend?

 

[Slocke]

What eels do you recommend?

Snake eels. They can get big and may be able to eat small slow fish but they lack teeth and have much smaller jaws. The best one I know of is the banded snake eel M Colubrinus. It's the black and white one in my video. It can't open its jaws wide enough to eat most fish we keep in the hobby.

Snake Eels: The Safe Moray Alternative?

Snake Eels: The Safe Moray Alternative? by @Slocke Myrichthys Colubrinus - The Banded Snake Eel Snake eels are a more rarely seen but available eel in the aquarium hobby but are they a viable option for someone looking for a more unusual eel...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[hoffmeyerz]

I currently have a snowflake eel in a community tank. It's still young and small, I made sure to get one young to help it get used to being around a community fish tank.
I keep it well fed and it doesn't care about the fish nor them about it. Actually, the bicolor Angel thinks he's a cleaner wrasse or something and keeps swimming up to it and looks to get preened...lol
I don't, and won't have any shrimp while it's in the tank but the hermit crabs walk right over its head to no issue. Of course this could all change so I monitor closely but for now all is good

 

[Zionas]

I’m not a fan of Eels and other big predator fish in reef tanks because you’d almost always want to keep lots of smaller fish with them. The pebble-toothed Morays like the Snowflake are supposedly safer, but their predatory instincts are still strong and if excited or when opportunity presents itself they can go after smaller fish and take chunks out of them.