Need Opinions on the what to get: Big Eel Edition

[Thomas Jedlicka]

Hey everybody

I have a 450 Dt that is predatory FOWLR right now but in a the next year will become a reef tank. I am looking to get a combo of the small pretty fish but one wow factor eel.

I have a 75 gallon that I want to use as a grow out for the eel and buy it small-ish so i can hopefully guide the temperament of the eel.

the fish that the eel would have to cohabitat with are 4 large puffers in the 450 gallon and some large angels.

but in the 75 gallon I have a damsel, clownfish, and picasso trigger. I can move things around but that is the stocking concerns. I will have inverts in both tanks.

The eels I have been heavily considering are a Green Moray Eel which I find have become really hard to get ahold of and are very affordable or the Tessalata which is easier to get a hold of but triple the price. Do you have any ideas of BIG eels that may work, ive already done a snowflake and jeweled moray etc so im looking to get an eel that looks more like an arm instead of a small rope.

 

[blaxsun]

I haven't yet ventured into "eel territory", but the resident eel experts I asked always indicated if that the fish can fit inside the eel - you generally want a smaller or extremely peaceful eel. If you do a quick search on R2R there are a few really awesome eel tanks that members have posted that will give you some great ideas.

 

[Auquanut]

Tagging along. I'm leaning toward a zebra eel for my current build. I've read some promising posts about their temperament. Hoping to see what others say.

 

[lion king]

If you are looking for a wow factor and a fang tooth, I would say a dragon eel. But if you are concerned about the price tag of a tessa, then watch out. Tessa's eventually become the only fish in the tank, even in a very large tank, and puffers will almost certainly fall victim. The picasso will likely be the only survivor in a 75g grow out with any fang tooth eel. The zebra eel is the only really large eel, a pebbletooth, I can see working in the grow out that would also not cause havoc in the dt like a tessa, with the exception of the dragon. The dragon and zebra usually come in at a good size ready for your size tank, the dragon would eat the clowns and damsels in your 75g. Please forget about the green moray, they are not appropriate for a home aquarium, even in a very large aquarium, they die pretty quickly for one reason or another. Oh, and a green moray would even eat your dog.

If you keep the small fang tooths like a jeweled or goldentail long enough, they are as thick as your arm, my little fang tooths get as thick as my forearm, at only 2' and can live with aggressive fish in a large aquarium, still puffers are not recommended. The thing is most people don't care for them properly and don't keep them alive long enough. A small moray can live 15 or more years in captivity, most live less than 2.

 

[gjmyers23]

If your looking for a fang toothed eel I have a 16-18 inch yellowhead moray eel I'm trying to sell if your interested. I wanna go less aggressive in my tank. I have had it in my 120g tank for just over a year. I feed him 4 silversides every 3 days. He has an aggressive temperament and healthy.