How would you stock a fang tooth eel tank

Gp! · Mar 8, 2022

lion king said:
The damsels idea is more for eel only tanks, to provide some color and movement, in your tank unless you are interested in keeping them, there really is no point.

Ah I misunderstood. I'll skip them.

lion king said:
You can still use things like snails and hermits, they will disappear, but no biggie, spend $20 now and then to keep some in. Sneak them after bedtime and some will survive. It also gives the triggers some enrichment and a snack.

Good tip! Have been thinking about food and should probably formalize a plan. My goal is mollies and marbled crayfish as a large portion of the diet. Will mix in fatty fish and shrimp from the grocery store for variety as you've suggested.

I would like to have a few freeze dried or pellet options in there as well so I can rely on auto feeders when required. I've read your posts saying to avoid krill. Are mysis big enough to be of interest to any of these guys? Can you make any recommendations here?

lion king · Mar 8, 2022

None of the fish in line up really requires live food, all of them will accept dead food easily and you can provide enough variation that they will accept. Doesn't mean you may not have start them off with if they don't eat, but they will all eventually do well on a proper dead food diet. Although there are some companies that package predator formula's made with human grade ingredients, you'd be spending a fortune. So making your own mix is better, buy fresh when you can and freeze in small batches. You can make mixes by chpping up and freezing like that, or individual items and pull as you need. The eels pieces will be larger than the pieces you broadcast for the rest. Some good choices include salmon, shrimp with shells, scallop, mussels, clams, squid, octopus. An Asian market has stuff like octopus and squid, as well as other items you may offer. I do keep human grade krill(they call them tiny shrimp) and smelt; both contain too much thiaminese, but you have to feed sparingly ifbyou do use. As far as mysis, maybe PE mysis, and they do have jumbo mysis, although my fish just never seemed to like it. The regular mysis, no. A couple of things I do get from the lfs is Hikari silversides, they use a fish that does not contain thiaminese; other brands may use fish that do, silversides is a common name for many species of fish. The cubes from Ocean Nutrition, there's a trigger formula, and formula one, I cut them into bite size chunks just barely not completely frozen. You can also stuff your pellets into the chunks for the eels, remember to include an algae formula, predators would get their green nutrients from the entrails of their prey.

Gp! · Mar 8, 2022

lion king said:
None of the fish in line up really requires live food, all of them will accept dead food easily and you can provide enough variation that they will accept.

Can you clarify - are you recommending against feeding mollies and crayfish to this tank in general. Or saying that they shouldn't be fed to this tank while alive. Or only that this group of fish won't require live food?

lion king · Mar 8, 2022

Your group doesn't "require" live food to live a long healthy life. Feeing live had it's own complications, while you will find many of my writings advocating for live food, that's for predators like lions, scorps, anglers: fish that many times won't take dead food snd don't live very long on a dead food only diet. I also recommend in some cases to feed live to settle in fish that are difficult to feed, like some erls and even groupers. But these fish will easily convert to a variety of dead foods, and that is s better way to go. It may also be a better idea not to have your fang toith eels and aggressive fish in general, in a community, eating live food.

Gp! · Mar 8, 2022

lion king said:
It may also be a better idea not to have your fang toith eels and aggressive fish in general, in a community, eating live food.

This was my thought too. I had planned (in some undecided but humane way) to make the mollies and crayfish not alive before using them.

It is no extra effort at the moment to grow them as they live outdoors here and I already have them. From what I've read in your other posts this should be a good source of nutrition. If it does end up being too much trouble I could go a different route but as long as this is "healthy" for the tank I figured it would be a good choice for me.

lion king · Mar 8, 2022

Yes mollies are a good source of food for predators, the bones and gut flora may be the key to a long life for the lions and scorps I keep. In you tank it would be best to feed them fresh dead. How to humanely go about that I am not sure, but we can argue about how me feeding them live is humane. Obviously no chemicals

Gp! · Mar 8, 2022

lion king said:
How to humanely go about that I am not sure, but we can argue about how me feeding them live is humane.

Didn't mean to make that confusing. Was trying to keep the thread from being derailed on that topic

CC_N · Mar 17, 2022

Has anyone own a hawaiian dragon? People said hawaiian are the most colorful but i havent found any pic of hawaiian dragon that that much colorful

HB AL · Mar 17, 2022

Gp! said:
I keep seeing pics of dragon eels and curious how one would stock a fang tooth eel tank.

Assuming the tank is large enough for a few eels. My favorite are the dragon eel and banana eel but I guess this is besides the point.

What else would you stock in it? 40 damsels and call it a day? What choices would you suggest for a neat display?

This is my way for now.
But there still relatively small.

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Mar 17, 2022

One of.my.lfs has had this dragon eel forever...
I want a moray but I can't justify another 300g tank... and stock the cuc all the time lol.

Gp! · Mar 17, 2022

HB AL said:
This is my way for now.
But there still relatively small.

So very entertaining

thanks for posting. I hope mine eventually looks as good as yours!

Gp! · Mar 17, 2022

If I were to include a lion and the eel was to eat him, would it hurt the eel? @lion king

lion king · Mar 17, 2022

Possible, while they do eat them in the wild, in captivity things do change somehow. May depend on size of each and the effectiveness of the attack from the eel. In captivity you have space restraints. The lion could impale the eel and that could have effect with the venom but also as an injury, like in an eye. I believe the venom gets more dangerous in maturity, but I believe the eel would likely withstand the venom from ingestion or even a sting, in the wild these things are just natural, i would be more concerned of an injury like losing an eye or something that turns into a bacterial infection. The lion would most certainly lose, but both could lose.

Gp! · Mar 17, 2022

lion king said:
Possible, while they do eat them in the wild, in captivity things do change somehow. May depend on size of each and the effectiveness of the attack from the eel. In captivity you have space restraints. The lion could impale the eel and that could have effect with the venom but also as an injury, like in an eye. I believe the venom gets more dangerous in maturity, but I believe the eel would likely withstand the venom from ingestion or even a sting, in the wild these things are just natural, i would be more concerned of an injury like losing an eye or something that turns into a bacterial infection. The lion would most certainly lose, but both could lose.

Thank you for the perspective

lion king · Mar 17, 2022

Just so you get me, lions don't attack other than to eat something, but they will defend themselves. If the eel catches the lion quickly then that will be that. But if the lion has time to react, then thats where I would be concerned of an injury. The lion in no way will bother the eel. I've seen this happen, many times in tanks too small, but also as a defense of a bully. But I wouldn't trust the eels to play nice.

lion king · Mar 17, 2022

Here's one that broke the rules, This lion was tiny with a jeweled eel and made it. Looks like this is one that will be a success, although even after years a fang tooth eel can eat a tank mate. The jeweled and the banana are very similar size and temperament, while the dragon is larger they have a mild temperament as well. This is an exception, there will 99 out of 100 that lion gets eaten.

Volitan Lionfish 366 days

Missed Joel’s Bday by one day, couldn’t have been more than a few weeks old when I got him.

www.reef2reef.com

Gp! · Mar 26, 2022

So I was using 4" PVC to lay out some caves to get a feel for how much space the eels will need.

It made me feel a little cramped thinking about all the big fish. Especially with the rockwork required to make the caves.

So I'm considering a pivot to the damsel approach mentioned before. I think the small fish movement will fix that feeling for me.

That would mean the groupers are out.

What about triggers? Would any of the triggers (or different triggers) fit with the eels and also be okay with damsels?

lion king · Mar 26, 2022

I'm sorry I've dominated your post, in no way are my thoughts the only way to do what you are doing. This hobby rarely has absolutes, as how utterly surprised I was that little lion survived with that jeweled, no way that would have happened with my jeweled. On this vein, most of the triggers I've kept would likely devour the damsels, and the picasso I have now, they wouldn't have a chance. You really don't want the wimpy triggers like the bluejaw, not only do I not think they are tough enough to run with the eels, they are also just plain boring.

Here are the possible outcomes that I have seen. Maybe the triggers just won't care, as they don't see them as threat, this does sometimes happen. But it will be less likely when you have multiple triggers to choose from. Some damsels will escape the wrath of the triggers, as damsels really are little demons, and very elusive. The triggers eventually give up and you have the ones that survived. They may slowly start to disappear after that when it becomes an opportunistic score for the trigger, or the triggers just stop caring. This is usually the same thing that happens with the eels.

Because of your starting point with the eels, you are likely looking at least 5-6" triggers to start. I would stock the tank with the damsels first. If they last a good long while and you enjoy them but you've lost some and want to restock, be careful. Make sure it's after the eels have been fed and after the triggers bedtime before introducing, and be mindful it doesn't look like you are offering a midnight snack to the eels. You definitely want triggers with these eels, I'm getting ready to revamp my 210g and am thinking of triggers and eels. I'm different than most where I like understocked tanks and don't mind tanks with little movement.